In message <43713115.4942.4A3995E@localhost>, "James A. Donald" writes:
-- Does SPEKE claim to patent any uses of zero knowledge proof of possession of the password for mutual authentication, or just some particular method for establishing communications? Is there any way around the SPEKE patent for mutual authentication and establishing secure communications on a weak passphrase?
It certainly doesn't claim EKE, by myself and Michael Merritt, since he and I invented the field. Of course, EKE is also patented. SRP is patented but royalty-free. Some of have claimed that it infringes the EKE patent; since I don't work for the EKE patent owner (Lucent), I've never tried to verify that. Radia Perlman and Charlie Kaufman invented PDM specifically as a patent-free method. However, the claim was made that it infringed the SPEKE patent. Since it wasn't patented, there was no one willing to spend the money on legal fees to fight that claim, per a story I heard. Have a look at http://web.archive.org/web/20041018153649/integritysciences.com/history.html for some history. --Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb