System and method of reliable forward secret key sharing with physical random functions

Abstract

A secure solution is provided to the problem of secret key agreement. In particular, a method of reliable forward secret key sharing is disclosed between two legitimate correspondents whose profiles match sufficiently. The invention relies on a physical random function, sometimes referred to as a physical unclonable function (PUF) to provide a secure solution to the problem of secret key agreement. In one embodiment, a one-pass protocol is introduced based on Reed-Solomon codes leading to an unconditionally secure solution. In a further embodiment, the solution of the first embodiment is improved upon by providing a conditionally secure solution based on a pseudo random family of functions. In a still further embodiment, a two-pass protocol is introduced which is used exclusively for purposes of identification and authentication. In accordance with the principles of the two-pass protocol, two communications are required and unlike the one-pass protocol, the second correspondent selects the secret key K.