An Alternative Methodology for Authentication and Confidentiality Based on Zero Knowledge Protocols Using Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

This paper presents a concept for a new method to provide the authentication and confidentiality using zero knowledge protocol and key exchange. Zero knowledge proof protocol is a essential component of cryptography, which in recent years has increasingly popular amongst scholars. Its applications have widened and it has made inroads in several areas including mathematics and network safety and so on. This simple protocol based on zero knowledge proof by which user can prove to the authentication server that he has the password without having to send the password to the server either clear text or in encrypted format. This is a protocol in which the data learned by one party (i.e., The inspector) allow him/her to verify that a statement is true but does not reveal any additional information. In this paper we first discuss about zero-knowledge protocol proof system of knowledge and also key exchange between users and which then is modified into an authentication scheme with secret key exchange for confidentiality. The whole protocol involves mutual identification of two users, exchange of a random common secret key or session key for the verification of public keys.