On pairing constrained wireless devices based on secrecy of auxiliary channels

Secure "pairing" of wireless devices based on auxiliary or out-of-band (OOB) - audio, visual or tactile - communication is a well-established research direction. Lack of good quality interfaces on or physical access to certain constrained devices (e.g., headsets, access points, medical implants) makes pairing a challenging problem in practice. Prior work shows that pairing of constrained devices based on authenticated OOB (A-OOB) channels can be prone to human errors that eventually translate into man-in-the-middle attacks. An alternative and more usable solution is to use OOB channel(s) that are authenticated as well as secret (AS-OOB). AS-OOB pairing can be achieved by simply transmitting the key or a short password over the AS-OOB channel, avoiding potential serious human errors.