An attack on the Needham-Schroeder public-key authentication protocol

The work

AuthorsGavin Lowe
Typearticle
Year1995
Citekeylowe1995attack

Where it appeared

Published inInformation Processing Letters
PublisherElsevier
Volume56
Issue3
Pages131--133

Related

Distinct fromlowe1996breaking The 1995 Information Processing Letters note states the attack on the Needham-Schroeder public-key protocol; the 1996 TACAS paper gives the fuller treatment and the fix, and adds the mechanical check that found it. Same result, two documents a year apart, neither a reprint of the other. Cite the first for priority and the second for the method.

Abstract

In this paper we present an attack upon the Needham-Schroeder public-key authentication protocol. The attack allows an intruder to impersonate another agent.

A copy is held

pdf, 86.8 kB. Not published — it may be under copyright. The facts and links here are.

How it got here

How it got hereagent via unpaywall
Added2026-08-08 00:00 UTC
Approved bya person 2026-08-16 15:22 UTC

Cite it as

@article{lowe1995attack,
  title        = {An attack on the Needham-Schroeder public-key authentication protocol},
  author       = {Gavin Lowe},
  year         = {1995},
  journal      = {Information Processing Letters},
  volume       = {56},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {131--133},
  publisher    = {Elsevier},
  doi          = {10.1016/0020-0190(95)00144-2},
}

This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/lowe1995attack/ and will keep doing so.