Solving the Discrete Logarithm Problem for Ephemeral Keys in Chang and Chang Password Key Exchange Protocol

The present study investigates the difficulty of solving the mathematical problem, namely the DLP (Discrete Logarithm Problem) for ephemeral keys. The DLP is the basis for many public key cryptosystems. The ephemeral keys are used in such systems to ensure security. The DLP defined on a prime field $Z^*_p of random prime is considered in the present study. The most effective method to solve the DLP is the ICM (Index Calculus Method). In the present study, an efficient way of computing the DLP for ephemeral keys by using a new variant of the ICM when the factors of p-1 are known and small is proposed. The ICM has two steps, a pre-computation and an individual logarithm computation. The pre-computation step is to compute the logarithms of a subset of a group and the individual logarithm step is to find the DLP using the precomputed logarithms. Since the ephemeral keys are dynamic and change for every session, once the logarithms of a subset of a group are known, the DLP for the ephemeral key can be obtained using the individual logarithm step. Therefore, an efficient way of solving the individual logarithm step based on the newly proposed precomputation method is presented and the performance is analyzed using a comprehensive set of experiments. The ephemeral keys are also solved by using other methods, which are efficient on random primes, such as the Pohlig-Hellman method, the Van Oorschot method and the traditional individual logarithm step. The results are compared with the newly proposed individual logarithm step of the ICM. Also, the DLP of ephemeral keys used in a popular password key exchange protocol known as Chang and Chang are computed and reported to launch key recovery attack.