Two Novel Variants of ECDH Key Exchange Protocol Using Schnorr Zero-Knowledge Proof

Abstract

The Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) protocol is a key exchange protocol that is widely used in information technology systems. However, the ECDH protocol still has inherent weaknesses due to the lack of a user authentication mechanism and is affected by man-in-the-middle attacks. In this paper, we propose two novel variants of the ECDH protocol using Schnorr Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) for Client-Server network model. We aim to integrate the user authentication mechanism into the key exchange process for the Client-Server network model with higher security than applying the original ECDH protocol. To achieve this goal, we compare and analyze the network model utilizing the original ECDH protocol versus the proposed protocols. Therefore, we draw some conclusions about the advantages, disadvantages, and feasibility of the proposed solution.