Wireless Authentication using Remote Passwords

Current wireless authentication mechanisms typically rely on inflexible shared secrets or a heavyweight public-key infrastructure with user-specific digital certificates and, as such, lack general support for environments with dynamic user bases where guest access is frequent. Simple Authentication for the Web (SAW) facilitates dynamic user bases in the context of web site logins by enabling users to authenticate to personal messaging identifiers (e.g., email addresses, IM handles, cell phone numbers). SAW, however, is ill-suited for wireless authentication because, in most cases, it is dependent on client-side Internet connectivity. Wireless Authentication using Remote Passwords (WARP) overcomes this constraint by building a hybrid protocol that combines the principles of SAW authentication with the Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol.