Simple and Efficient Group Key Distribution Protocol using Matrices

Group Key Distribution (GKD) protocols are designed to distribute a group key to several users for establishing a secure communication over a public network. The central trusted authority, called the key distribution center (KDC) is in charge of distributing the group keys. For securing the communication, all the users share a common secret key in advance with KDC. In this paper, we propose a secure and efficient Group Authenticated Key Distribution (GAKD) protocol based on the simple idea of encryption in matrix rings. In this protocol, each user registers in private with the KDC, while all the other information can be transferred publicly. The scheme also supports authentication of group keys without assuming computational hard problems such as Integer Factorization Problem (IFP).The analysis of our GAKD protocol shows that the proposed protocol is resistant to reply, passive and impersonation attacks. Our construction leads to a secure, cost and computation- effective GAKD protocol.