On Composability of Game-Based Password Authenticated Key Exchange

It is standard practice that the secret key derived from an execution of a Password Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) protocol is used to authenticate and encrypt some data payload using a Symmetric Key Protocol (SKP). Unfortunately, most PAKEs of practical interest are studied using so-called game-based models, which - unlike simulation models - do not guarantee secure composition per se. However, Brzuska et al. (CCS 2011) have shown that a middle ground is possible in the case of authenticated key exchange that relies on Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI): the game-based models do provide secure composition guarantees when the class of higher-level applications is restricted to SKPs. The question that we pose in this paper is whether or not a similar result can be exhibited for PAKE. Our work answers this question positively. More specifically, we show that PAKE protocols secure according to the game-based Real-or-Random (RoR) definition with the weak forward secrecy of Abdalla et al. (S&P 2015) allow for safe composition with arbitrary, higher-level SKPs. Since there is evidence that most PAKEs secure in the Find-then-Guess (FtG) model are in fact secure according to RoR definition, we can conclude that nearly all provably secure PAKEs enjoy a certain degree of composition, one that at least covers the case of implementing secure channels.