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revised section 4 pairing
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kaiserd committed Jun 10, 2016
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27 changes: 18 additions & 9 deletions draft-huitema-dnssd-privacy.xml
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Expand Up @@ -701,21 +701,30 @@ course taking advantage of lready authenticated public keys.
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<section title="Shared Secret">
<t>
TODO: generation and transmission of the shared secret.

When using Bluetooth LE or scanning a QR code as means of transmitting the shared secret,
the probability of the secret getting stolen is reasonably low.
<t>
Goal of the pairing process is establishing pairwise shared secrets.
If two users can leverage a secure private off-channel,
it suffices for one user to generate the shared secret and transmit it over this
off-channel.
It would be possible for the users to meet and orally agree on a password that
both users enter in their devices. This has the disadvantage of user-chosen passwords to
have low entropy and the inconvenience of having to type the password.
Leveraging QR-codes can overcome these disadvantages:
one user generates a shared secret, displays it in form of a QR-code, and the other user scans this code.
Strictly speaking, displaying and scanning QR-codes does not establish a secure private channel,
as others could also photograph this code; but it is reasonable secure for the application area of private service discovery.

Using Bluetooth LE might also be considered satisfactory as a compromise between
convenience and security.
</t>
</section>


<section title="Secure Authenticated Pairing Channel">
<t>
Optionally, authenticated DH can be used to exchange a mutually authenticated shared secret.

TODO: protocol.

Optionally, various versions of authenticated DH can be used to exchange a mutually authenticated shared secret
(which among other possibilities can leverage QR-codes for key fingerprint verification).
Using DH gives the benefit of provable security and the possibility to perform a pairing when not being able to meet in person.
Further, using DH to generate the shared secret has the advantage of both parties contributing to the shared secret (multiparty computation).
</t>
</section>
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