A Three-Factor Based Remote User Authentication Scheme: Strengthening Systematic Security and Personal Privacy for Wireless Communications

Anonymous remote user authentication plays more and more important role in wireless personal communication networks to guarantee systematic security and personal privacy. However, as promising as it is, security and privacy issues have seriously challenged user experience and system performance in the authentication schemes for a long time. In this paper, we propose a remote user authentication scheme for wireless communication networks. Our proposal employs the personal workstation as a trusted proxy to preserve perfect user privacy, while maintaining system security. It not only provides mutual authentication with key agreement mechanism, but also keeps user’ privacy private in a reliable domain. In addition, the technologies of Bluetooth (or Wifi) improve user experience and improve user friendliness in three-factor based authentication schemes. Moreover, our scheme supports flexible user login and security level. Finally, the security proof and performance analysis show that our scheme is more efficient and practical.