A Secure Authenticated Key Agreement Scheme Resilient Against Quantum Attacks

The rise of Web 3.0 has propelled the Internet to new heights of development. However, post-quantum protocols are in high demand to ensure the utmost security to keep pace with the advancements. Our solution is upgrading the traditional synchronous authenticated identity identification and key agreement protocol. Specifically, we have developed an asymmetric key version of the quantum-safe Needham-Schroeder protocol. The proposed protocol achieves forward secrecy, which the classical Needham-Schroeder lacks. Using the highly flexible universal composability framework (iUC), we have analyzed the security of the protocol and achieved mutual authentication and session key security for an unbounded number of sessions. Our informal security analysis confirms that the proposed protocol resists known attacks such as replay and masquerading. Besides, it satisfies security goals, including known-key secrecy and ephemeral secret key leakage. Our modular solution can upgrade practical applications that rely on the traditional Needham-Schroeder protocol and its derivatives to the post-quantum era.