Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P.

Zimmermann
Request for Comments: 6189 Zfone Project
Category: Informational A. Johnston, Ed.
ISSN: 2070-1721 Avaya
J. Callas
Apple, Inc.
April 2011

ZRTP: Media Path Key Agreement for Unicast Secure RTP

Abstract

This document defines ZRTP, a protocol for media path Diffie-Hellman

exchange to agree on a session key and parameters for establishing
unicast Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) sessions for Voice
over IP (VoIP) applications. The ZRTP protocol is media path keying
because it is multiplexed on the same port as RTP and does not
require support in the signaling protocol. ZRTP does not assume a
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) or require the complexity of
certificates in end devices. For the media session, ZRTP provides
confidentiality, protection against man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attacks,
and, in cases where the signaling protocol provides end-to-end
integrity protection, authentication. ZRTP can utilize a Session
Description Protocol (SDP) attribute to provide discovery and
authentication through the signaling channel. To provide best effort
SRTP, ZRTP utilizes normal RTP/AVP (Audio-Visual Profile) profiles.
ZRTP secures media sessions that include a voice media stream and can
also secure media sessions that do not include voice by using an
optional digital signature.

Status of This Memo

This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is

published for informational purposes.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force

(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

Information about the current status of this document, any errata,

and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6189.

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Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust’s Legal

Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ....................................................4
2. Terminology .....................................................5
3. Overview ........................................................6
3.1. Key Agreement Modes ........................................7
3.1.1. Diffie-Hellman Mode Overview ........................7
3.1.2. Preshared Mode Overview .............................9
3.1.3. Multistream Mode Overview ...........................9
4. Protocol Description ...........................................10
4.1. Discovery .................................................10
4.1.1. Protocol Version Negotiation .......................11
4.1.2. Algorithm Negotiation ..............................13
4.2. Commit Contention .........................................14
4.3. Matching Shared Secret Determination ......................15
4.3.1. Calculation and Comparison of Hashes of
Shared Secrets .....................................17
4.3.2. Handling a Shared Secret Cache Mismatch ............18
4.4. DH and Non-DH Key Agreements ..............................19
4.4.1. Diffie-Hellman Mode ................................19
4.4.1.1. Hash Commitment in Diffie-Hellman Mode ....20
4.4.1.2. Responder Behavior in
Diffie-Hellman Mode .......................21
4.4.1.3. Initiator Behavior in
Diffie-Hellman Mode .......................22
4.4.1.4. Shared Secret Calculation for DH Mode .....22
4.4.2. Preshared Mode .....................................25
4.4.2.1. Commitment in Preshared Mode ..............25
4.4.2.2. Initiator Behavior in Preshared Mode ......26
4.4.2.3. Responder Behavior in Preshared Mode ......26
4.4.2.4. Shared Secret Calculation for
Preshared Mode ............................27

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4.4.3. Multistream Mode ...................................28

4.4.3.1. Commitment in Multistream Mode ............29
4.4.3.2. Shared Secret Calculation for
Multistream Mode ..........................29
4.5. Key Derivations ...........................................31
4.5.1. The ZRTP Key Derivation Function ...................31
4.5.2. Deriving ZRTPSess Key and SAS in DH or
Preshared Modes ....................................32
4.5.3. Deriving the Rest of the Keys from s0 ..............33
4.6. Confirmation ..............................................35
4.6.1. Updating the Cache of Shared Secrets ...............35
4.6.1.1. Cache Update Following a Cache Mismatch ...36
4.7. Termination ...............................................37
4.7.1. Termination via Error Message ......................37
4.7.2. Termination via GoClear Message ....................37
4.7.2.1. Key Destruction for GoClear Message .......39
4.7.3. Key Destruction at Termination .....................40
4.8. Random Number Generation ..................................40
4.9. ZID and Cache Operation ...................................41
4.9.1. Cacheless Implementations ..........................42
5. ZRTP Messages ..................................................42
5.1. ZRTP Message Formats ......................................44
5.1.1. Message Type Block .................................44
5.1.2. Hash Type Block ....................................45
5.1.2.1. Negotiated Hash and MAC Algorithm .........46
5.1.2.2. Implicit Hash and MAC Algorithm ...........47
5.1.3. Cipher Type Block ..................................47
5.1.4. Auth Tag Type Block ................................48
5.1.5. Key Agreement Type Block ...........................49
5.1.6. SAS Type Block .....................................51
5.1.7. Signature Type Block ...............................52
5.2. Hello Message .............................................53
5.3. HelloACK Message ..........................................56
5.4. Commit Message ............................................56
5.5. DHPart1 Message ...........................................60
5.6. DHPart2 Message ...........................................62
5.7. Confirm1 and Confirm2 Messages ............................63
5.8. Conf2ACK Message ..........................................66
5.9. Error Message .............................................66
5.10. ErrorACK Message .........................................68
5.11. GoClear Message ..........................................68
5.12. ClearACK Message .........................................69
5.13. SASrelay Message .........................................69
5.14. RelayACK Message .........................................72
5.15. Ping Message .............................................72
5.16. PingACK Message ..........................................73
6. Retransmissions ................................................74

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7. Short Authentication String ....................................77

7.1. SAS Verified Flag .........................................78
7.2. Signing the SAS ...........................................79
7.2.1. OpenPGP Signatures .................................81
7.2.2. ECDSA Signatures with X.509v3 Certs ................82
7.2.3. Signing the SAS without a PKI ......................83
7.3. Relaying the SAS through a PBX ............................84
7.3.1. PBX Enrollment and the PBX Enrollment Flag .........87
8. Signaling Interactions .........................................89
8.1. Binding the Media Stream to the Signaling Layer
via the Hello Hash ........................................90
8.1.1. Integrity-Protected Signaling Enables
Integrity-Protected DH Exchange ....................92
8.2. Deriving the SRTP Secret (srtps) from the
Signaling Layer ...........................................93
8.3. Codec Selection for Secure Media ..........................94
9. False ZRTP Packet Rejection ....................................95
10. Intermediary ZRTP Devices .....................................97
11. The ZRTP Disclosure Flag ......................................98
11.1. Guidelines on Proper Implementation of the
Disclosure Flag .........................................100
12. Mapping between ZID and AOR (SIP URI) ........................100
13. IANA Considerations ..........................................102
14. Media Security Requirements ..................................102
15. Security Considerations ......................................104
15.1. Self-Healing Key Continuity Feature .....................107
16. Acknowledgments ..............................................108
17. References ...................................................109
17.1. Normative References ....................................109
17.2. Informative References ..................................111

1. Introduction

ZRTP is a key agreement protocol that performs a Diffie-Hellman key

exchange during call setup in the media path and is transported over
the same port as the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) [RFC3550]
media stream which has been established using a signaling protocol
such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) [RFC3261]. This generates
a shared secret, which is then used to generate keys and salt for a
Secure RTP (SRTP) [RFC3711] session. ZRTP borrows ideas from
[PGPfone]. A reference implementation of ZRTP is available in
[Zfone].

The ZRTP protocol has some nice cryptographic features lacking in

many other approaches to media session encryption. Although it uses
a public key algorithm, it does not rely on a public key
infrastructure (PKI). In fact, it does not use persistent public
keys at all. It uses ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (DH) with hash

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commitment and allows the detection of man-in-the-middle (MiTM)

attacks by displaying a short authentication string (SAS) for the
users to read and verbally compare over the phone. It has Perfect
Forward Secrecy, meaning the keys are destroyed at the end of the
call, which precludes retroactively compromising the call by future
disclosures of key material. But even if the users are too lazy to
bother with short authentication strings, we still get reasonable
authentication against a MiTM attack, based on a form of key
continuity. It does this by caching some key material to use in the
next call, to be mixed in with the next call’s DH shared secret,
giving it key continuity properties analogous to Secure SHell (SSH).
All this is done without reliance on a PKI, key certification, trust
models, certificate authorities, or key management complexity that
bedevils the email encryption world. It also does not rely on SIP
signaling for the key management, and in fact, it does not rely on
any servers at all. It performs its key agreements and key
management in a purely peer-to-peer manner over the RTP packet
stream.

ZRTP can be used and discovered without being declared or indicated

in the signaling path. This provides a best effort SRTP capability.
Also, this reduces the complexity of implementations and minimizes
interdependency between the signaling and media layers. However,
when ZRTP is indicated in the signaling via the zrtp-hash SDP
attribute, ZRTP has additional useful properties. By sending a hash
of the ZRTP Hello message in the signaling, ZRTP provides a useful
binding between the signaling and media paths, which is explained in
Section 8.1. When this is done through a signaling path that has
end-to-end integrity protection, the DH exchange is automatically
protected from a MiTM attack, which is explained in Section 8.1.1.

ZRTP is designed for unicast media sessions in which there is a voice

media stream. For multiparty secure conferencing, separate ZRTP
sessions may be negotiated between each party and the conference
bridge. For sessions lacking a voice media stream, MiTM protection
may be provided by the mechanisms in Sections 8.1.1 or 7.2. In terms
of the RTP topologies defined in [RFC5117], ZRTP is designed for
Point-to-Point topologies only.

2. Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
[RFC2119].

In this document, a "call" is synonymous with a "session".

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3. Overview

This section provides a description of how ZRTP works. This

description is non-normative in nature but is included to build
understanding of the protocol.

ZRTP is negotiated the same way a conventional RTP session is

negotiated in an offer/answer exchange using the standard RTP/AVP
profile. The ZRTP protocol begins after two endpoints have utilized
a signaling protocol, such as SIP, and are ready to exchange media.
If Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) [RFC5245] is being
used, ZRTP begins after ICE has completed its connectivity checks.

ZRTP is multiplexed on the same ports as RTP. It uses a unique

header that makes it clearly differentiable from RTP or Session
Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN).

ZRTP support can be discovered in the signaling path by the presence

of a ZRTP SDP attribute. However, even in cases where this is not
received in the signaling, an endpoint can still send ZRTP Hello
messages to see if a response is received. If a response is not
received, no more ZRTP messages will be sent during this session.
This is safe because ZRTP has been designed to be clearly different
from RTP and have a similar structure to STUN packets received
(sometimes by non-supporting endpoints) during an ICE exchange.

Both ZRTP endpoints begin the ZRTP exchange by sending a ZRTP Hello
message to the other endpoint. The purpose of the Hello message is
to confirm that the endpoint supports the protocol and to see what
algorithms the two ZRTP endpoints have in common.

The Hello message contains the SRTP configuration options and the
ZID. Each instance of ZRTP has a unique 96-bit random ZRTP ID or ZID
that is generated once at installation time. ZIDs are discovered
during the Hello message exchange. The received ZID is used to look
up retained shared secrets from previous ZRTP sessions with the
endpoint.

A response to a ZRTP Hello message is a ZRTP HelloACK message. The

HelloACK message simply acknowledges receipt of the Hello. Since RTP
commonly uses best effort UDP transport, ZRTP has retransmission
timers in case of lost datagrams. There are two timers, both with
exponential backoff mechanisms. One timer is used for
retransmissions of Hello messages and the other is used for
retransmissions of all other messages after receipt of a HelloACK.

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If an integrity-protected signaling channel is available, a hash of

the Hello message can be sent. This allows rejection of false ZRTP
Hello messages injected by an attacker.

Hello and other ZRTP messages also contain a hash image that is used
to link the messages together. This allows rejection of false ZRTP
messages injected during an exchange.

3.1. Key Agreement Modes

After both endpoints exchange Hello and HelloACK messages, the key
agreement exchange can begin with the ZRTP Commit message. ZRTP
supports a number of key agreement modes including both Diffie-
Hellman and non-Diffie-Hellman modes as described in the following
sections.

The Commit message may be sent immediately after both endpoints have
completed the Hello/HelloACK discovery handshake, or it may be
deferred until later in the call, after the participants engage in
some unencrypted conversation. The Commit message may be manually
activated by a user interface element, such as a GO SECURE button,
which becomes enabled after the Hello/HelloACK discovery phase. This
emulates the user experience of a number of secure phones in the
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) world [comsec]. However, it
is expected that most simple ZRTP user agents will omit such buttons
and proceed directly to secure mode by sending a Commit message
immediately after the Hello/HelloACK handshake.

3.1.1. Diffie-Hellman Mode Overview

An example ZRTP call flow is shown in Figure 1. Note that the order
of the Hello/HelloACK exchanges in F1/F2 and F3/F4 may be reversed.
That is, either Alice or Bob might send the first Hello message.
Note that the endpoint that sends the Commit message is considered
the initiator of the ZRTP session and drives the key agreement
exchange. The Diffie-Hellman public values are exchanged in the
DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages. SRTP keys and salts are then
calculated.

The initiator needs to generate its ephemeral key pair before sending
the Commit, and the responder generates its key pair before sending
DHPart1.

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Alice Bob
| |
| Alice and Bob establish a media session. |
| They initiate ZRTP on media ports |
| |
| F1 Hello (version, options, Alice’s ZID) |
|-------------------------------------------------->|
| HelloACK F2 |
|<--------------------------------------------------|
| Hello (version, options, Bob’s ZID) F3 |
|<--------------------------------------------------|
| F4 HelloACK |
|-------------------------------------------------->|
| |
| Bob acts as the initiator. |
| |
| Commit (Bob’s ZID, options, hash value) F5 |
|<--------------------------------------------------|
| F6 DHPart1 (pvr, shared secret hashes) |
|-------------------------------------------------->|
| DHPart2 (pvi, shared secret hashes) F7 |
|<--------------------------------------------------|
| |
| Alice and Bob generate SRTP session key. |
| |
| F8 Confirm1 (MAC, D,A,V,E flags, sig) |
|-------------------------------------------------->|
| Confirm2 (MAC, D,A,V,E flags, sig) F9 |
|<--------------------------------------------------|
| F10 Conf2ACK |
|-------------------------------------------------->|
| SRTP begins |
|<=================================================>|
| |

Figure 1: Establishment of an SRTP Session Using ZRTP

ZRTP authentication uses a Short Authentication String (SAS), which

is ideally displayed for the human user. Alternatively, the SAS can
be authenticated by exchanging an optional digital signature (sig)
over the SAS in the Confirm1 or Confirm2 messages (described in
Section 7.2).

The ZRTP Confirm1 and Confirm2 messages are sent for a number of
reasons, not the least of which is that they confirm that all the key
agreement calculations were successful and thus the encryption will
work. They also carry other information such as the Disclosure flag
(D), the Allow Clear flag (A), the SAS Verified flag (V), and the

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Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Enrollment flag (E). All flags are
encrypted to shield them from a passive observer.

3.1.2. Preshared Mode Overview

In the Preshared mode, endpoints can skip the DH calculation if they

have a shared secret from a previous ZRTP session. Preshared mode is
indicated in the Commit message and results in the same call flow as
Multistream mode. The principal difference between Multistream mode
and Preshared mode is that Preshared mode uses a previously cached
shared secret, rs1, instead of an active ZRTP Session key as the
initial keying material.

This mode could be useful for slow processor endpoints so that a DH

calculation does not need to be performed every session. Or, this
mode could be used to rapidly re-establish an earlier session that
was recently torn down or interrupted without the need to perform
another DH calculation.

Preshared mode has forward secrecy properties. If a phone’s cache is

captured by an opponent, the cached shared secrets cannot be used to
recover earlier encrypted calls, because the shared secrets are
replaced with new ones in each new call, as in DH mode. However, the
captured secrets can be used by a passive wiretapper in the media
path to decrypt the next call, if the next call is in Preshared mode.
This differs from DH mode, which requires an active MiTM wiretapper
to exploit captured secrets in the next call. However, if the next
call is missed by the wiretapper, he cannot wiretap any further
calls. Thus, it preserves most of the self-healing properties
(Section 15.1) of key continuity enjoyed by DH mode.

3.1.3. Multistream Mode Overview

Multistream mode is an alternative key agreement method used when two

endpoints have an established SRTP media stream between them with an
active ZRTP Session key. ZRTP can derive multiple SRTP keys from a
single DH exchange. For example, an established secure voice call
that adds a video stream uses Multistream mode to quickly initiate
the video stream without a second DH exchange.

When Multistream mode is indicated in the Commit message, a call flow

similar to Figure 1 is used, but no DH calculation is performed by
either endpoint and the DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages are omitted.
The Confirm1, Confirm2, and Conf2ACK messages are still sent. Since
the cache is not affected during this mode, multiple Multistream ZRTP
exchanges can be performed in parallel between two endpoints.

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When adding additional media streams to an existing call, only

Multistream mode is used. Only one DH operation is performed, just
for the first media stream.

4. Protocol Description

This section begins the normative description of the protocol.

ZRTP MUST be multiplexed on the same ports as the RTP media packets.

To support best effort encryption from the Media Security

Requirements [RFC5479], ZRTP uses normal RTP/AVP profile (AVP) media
lines in the initial offer/answer exchange. The ZRTP SDP attribute
a=zrtp-hash defined in Section 8 SHOULD be used in all offers and
answers to indicate support for the ZRTP protocol.

ZRTP can be utilized by endpoints that do not have a common

signaling protocol but both support SRTP and are relying on a
gateway for conversion. As such, it is not always possible for
the signaling protocol to relay the zrtp-hash as can be done using
SIP.

The Secure RTP/AVP (SAVP) profile MAY be used in subsequent offer/

answer exchanges after a successful ZRTP exchange has resulted in an
SRTP session, or if it is known that the other endpoint supports this
profile. Other profiles MAY also be used.

The use of the RTP/SAVP profile has caused failures in negotiating

best effort SRTP due to the limitations on negotiating profiles
using SDP. This is why ZRTP supports the RTP/AVP profile and
includes its own discovery mechanisms.

In all key agreement modes, the initiator SHOULD NOT send RTP media
after sending the Commit message, and it MUST NOT send SRTP media
before receiving either the Conf2ACK or the first SRTP media (with a
valid SRTP auth tag) from the responder. The responder SHOULD NOT
send RTP media after receiving the Commit message, and MUST NOT send
SRTP media before receiving the Confirm2 message.

4.1. Discovery

During the ZRTP discovery phase, a ZRTP endpoint discovers if the

other endpoint supports ZRTP and the supported algorithms and
options. This information is transported in a Hello message, which
is described in Section 5.2.

ZRTP endpoints SHOULD include the SDP attribute a=zrtp-hash in offers

and answers, as defined in Section 8.

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The Hello message includes the ZRTP version, Hash Type, Cipher Type,
SRTP authentication tag type, Key Agreement Type, and Short
Authentication String (SAS) algorithms that are supported. The Hello
message also includes a hash image as described in Section 9. In
addition, each endpoint sends and discovers ZIDs. The received ZID
is used later in the protocol as an index into a cache of shared
secrets that were previously negotiated and retained between the two
parties.

A Hello message can be sent at any time, but it is usually sent at

the start of an RTP session to determine if the other endpoint
supports ZRTP and also if the SRTP implementations are compatible. A
Hello message is retransmitted using timer T1 and an exponential
backoff mechanism detailed in Section 6 until the receipt of a
HelloACK message or a Commit message.

The use of the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute to authenticate the Hello

message is described in Section 8.1.

If a Hello message, or any other ZRTP message, indicates that there

is a synchronization source (SSRC) collision, an Error message
(Section 5.9) MUST be sent with the Error Code indicating SSRC
collision, and the ZRTP negotiation MUST be terminated. The
procedures of RFC 3550, Section 8.2 [RFC3550], SHOULD be followed by
both endpoints to resolve this condition, and if it is resolved, a
new ZRTP secure session SHOULD be negotiated.

4.1.1. Protocol Version Negotiation

This specification defines ZRTP version 1.10. Since new versions of

ZRTP may be developed in the future, this specification defines a
protocol version negotiation in this section.

Each party declares what version of the ZRTP protocol they support
via the version field in the Hello message (Section 5.2). If both
parties have the same version number in their Hello messages, they
can proceed with the rest of the protocol. To facilitate both
parties reaching this state of protocol version agreement in their
Hello messages, ZRTP should use information provided in the signaling
layer, if available. If a ZRTP endpoint supports more than one
version of the protocol, it SHOULD declare them all in a list of SIP
SDP a=zrtp-hash attributes (defined in Section 8), listing separate
hashes, with separate ZRTP version numbers in each item in the list.

Both parties should inspect the list of ZRTP version numbers supplied
by the other party in the SIP SDP a=zrtp-hash attributes. Both
parties SHOULD choose the highest version number that appears in both
parties’ list of a=zrtp-hash version numbers, and use that version

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for their Hello messages. If both parties use the SIP signaling in
this manner, their initial Hello messages will have the same ZRTP
version number, provided they both have at least one supported
protocol version in common. Before the ZRTP key agreement can
proceed, an endpoint MUST have sent and received Hellos with the same
protocol version.

It is best if the signaling layer is used to negotiate the protocol

version number. However, the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute is not always
present in the SIP packet, as explained in Section 8.1. In the
absence of any guidance from the signaling layer, an endpoint MUST
send the highest supported version in initial Hello messages. If the
two parties send different protocol version numbers in their Hello
messages, they can reach an agreement to use a common version, if one
exists. They iteratively apply the following rules until they both
have matching version fields in their Hello messages and the key
agreement can proceed:

o If an endpoint receives a Hello message with an unsupported

version number that is higher than the endpoint’s current Hello
message version, the received Hello message MUST be ignored. The
endpoint continues to retransmit Hello messages on the standard
retry schedule (Section 6).

o If an endpoint receives a Hello message with a version number that

is lower than the endpoint’s current Hello message, and the
endpoint supports a version that is less than or equal to the
received version number, the endpoint MUST stop retransmitting the
old version number and MUST start sending a Hello message with the
highest supported version number that is less than or equal to the
received version number.

o If an endpoint receives a Hello message with an unsupported

version number that is lower than the endpoint’s current Hello
message, the endpoint MUST send an Error message (Section 5.9)
indicating failure to support this ZRTP version.

The above comparisons are iterated until the version numbers match,
or until it exits on a failure to match.

For example, assume that Alice supports protocol versions 1.10 and
2.00, and Bob supports versions 1.10 and 1.20. Alice initially
sends a Hello with version 2.00, and Bob initially sends a Hello
with version 1.20. Bob ignores Alice’s 2.00 Hello and continues
to send his 1.20 Hellos. Alice detects that Bob does not support
2.00 and she stops sending her 2.00 Hellos and starts sending a
stream of 1.10 Hellos. Bob sees the 1.10 Hello from Alice and
stops sending his 1.20 Hellos and switches to sending 1.10 Hellos.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

At that point, they have converged on using version 1.10 and the
protocol proceeds on that basis.

When comparing protocol versions, a ZRTP endpoint MUST include only

the first three octets of the version field in the comparison. The
final octet is ignored, because it is not significant for
interoperability. For example, "1.1 ", "1.10", "1.11", or "1.1a" are
all regarded as a version match, because they would all be
interoperable versions.

Changes in protocol version numbers are expected to be infrequent

after version 1.10. Supporting multiple versions adds code
complexity and may introduce security weaknesses in the
implementation. The old adage about keeping it simple applies
especially to implementing security protocols. Endpoints SHOULD NOT
support protocol versions earlier than version 1.10.

4.1.2. Algorithm Negotiation

A method is provided to allow the two parties to mutually and

deterministically choose the same DH key size and algorithm before a
Commit message is sent.

Each Hello message lists the algorithms in the order of preference

for that ZRTP endpoint. Endpoints eliminate the non-intersecting
choices from each of their own lists, resulting in each endpoint
having a list of algorithms in common that might or might not be
ordered the same as the other endpoint’s list. Each endpoint
compares the first item on their own list with the first item on the
other endpoint’s list and SHOULD choose the faster of the two
algorithms. For example:

o Alice’s full list: DH2k, DH3k, EC25

o Bob’s full list: EC38, EC25, DH3k

o Alice’s intersecting list: DH3k, EC25

o Bob’s intersecting list: EC25, DH3k

o Alice’s first choice is DH3k, and Bob’s first choice is EC25.

o Thus, both parties choose EC25 (ECDH-256) because it’s faster.

To decide which DH algorithm is faster, the following ranking, from

fastest to slowest is defined: DH-2048, ECDH-256, DH-3072, ECDH-384,
ECDH-521. These are all defined in Section 5.1.5.

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If both endpoints follow this method, they may each start their DH
calculations as soon as they receive the Hello message, and there
will be no need for either endpoint to discard their DH calculation
if the other endpoint becomes the initiator.

This method is used only to negotiate DH key size. For the rest of
the algorithm choices, it’s simply whatever the initiator selects
from the algorithms in common. Note that the DH key size influences
the Hash Type and the size of the symmetric cipher key, as explained
in Section 5.1.5.

Unfavorable choices will never be made by this method, because each

endpoint will omit from their respective lists choices that are too
slow or not secure enough to meet their security policy.

4.2. Commit Contention

After both parties have received compatible Hello messages, a Commit

message (Section 5.4) can be sent to begin the ZRTP key exchange.
The endpoint that sends the Commit is known as the initiator, while
the receiver of the Commit is known as the responder.

If both sides send Commit messages initiating a secure session at the

same time, the following rules are used to break the tie:

o If one Commit is for a DH mode while the other is for Preshared

mode, then the Preshared Commit MUST be discarded and the DH
Commit proceeds.

o If the two Commits are both Preshared mode, and one party has set
the MiTM (M) flag in the Hello message and the other has not, the
Commit message from the party who set the (M) flag MUST be
discarded, and the one who has not set the (M) flag becomes the
initiator, regardless of the nonce values. In other words, for
Preshared mode, the phone is the initiator and the PBX is the
responder.

o If the two Commits are either both DH modes or both non-DH modes,
then the Commit message with the lowest hvi (hash value of
initiator) value (for DH Commits), or lowest nonce value (for
non-DH Commits), MUST be discarded and the other side is the
initiator, and the protocol proceeds with the initiator’s Commit.
The two hvi or nonce values are compared as large unsigned
integers in network byte order.

If one Commit is for Multistream mode while the other is for non-
Multistream (DH or Preshared) mode, a software error has occurred and
the ZRTP negotiation should be terminated. This should never occur

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because of the constraints on Multistream mode described in

Section 4.4.3.

In the event that Commit messages are sent by both ZRTP endpoints at
the same time, but are received in different media streams, the same
resolution rules apply as if they were received on the same stream.
The media stream in which the Commit was received or sent will
proceed through the ZRTP exchange while the media stream with the
discarded Commit must wait for the completion of the other ZRTP
exchange.

If a commit contention forces a DH Commit message to be discarded,

the responder’s DH public value should only be discarded if it does
not match the initiator’s DH key size. This will not happen if both
endpoints choose a common key size via the method described in
Section 4.1.2.

4.3. Matching Shared Secret Determination

The following sections describe how ZRTP endpoints generate and/or

use the set of shared secrets s1, auxsecret, and pbxsecret through
the exchange of the DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages. This doesn’t cover
the Diffie-Hellman calculations. It only covers the method whereby
the two parties determine if they already have shared secrets in
common in their caches.

Each ZRTP endpoint maintains a long-term cache of shared secrets that

it has previously negotiated with the other party. The ZID of the
other party, received in the other party’s Hello message, is used as
an index into this cache to find the set of shared secrets, if any
exist. This cache entry may contain previously retained shared
secrets, rs1 and rs2, which give ZRTP its key continuity features.
If the other party is a PBX, the cache may also contain a trusted
MiTM PBX shared secret, called pbxsecret, defined in Section 7.3.1.

The DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages contain a list of hashes of these

shared secrets to allow the two endpoints to compare the hashes with
what they have in their caches to detect whether the two sides share
any secrets that can be used in the calculation of the session key.
The use of this shared secret cache is described in Section 4.9.

If no secret of a given type is available, a random value is

generated and used for that secret to ensure a mismatch in the hash
comparisons in the DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages. This prevents an
eavesdropper from knowing which types of shared secrets are available
between the endpoints.

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Section 4.3.1 refers to the auxiliary shared secret auxsecret. The

auxsecret shared secret may be defined by the VoIP user agent out-of-
band from the ZRTP protocol. In some cases, it may be provided by
the signaling layer as srtps, which is defined in Section 8.2. If it
is not provided by the signaling layer, the auxsecret shared secret
may be manually provisioned in other application-specific ways that
are out of band, such as computed from a hashed pass phrase by prior
agreement between the two parties or supplied by a hardware token.
Or, it may be a family key used by an institution to which the two
parties both belong. It is a generalized mechanism for providing a
shared secret that is agreed to between the two parties out of scope
of the ZRTP protocol. It is expected that most typical ZRTP
endpoints will rarely use auxsecret.

For both the initiator and the responder, the shared secrets s1, s2,
and s3 will be calculated so that they can all be used later to
calculate s0 in Section 4.4.1.4. Here is how s1, s2, and s3 are
calculated by both parties.

The shared secret s1 will be either the initiator’s rs1 or the

initiator’s rs2, depending on which of them can be found in the
responder’s cache. If the initiator’s rs1 matches the responder’s
rs1 or rs2, then s1 MUST be set to the initiator’s rs1. If and only
if that match fails, then if the initiator’s rs2 matches the
responder’s rs1 or rs2, then s1 MUST be set to the initiator’s rs2.
If that match also fails, then s1 MUST be set to null. The
complexity of the s1 calculation is to recover from any loss of cache
sync from an earlier aborted session, due to the Two Generals’
Problem [Byzantine].

The shared secret s2 MUST be set to the value of auxsecret if and

only if both parties have matching values for auxsecret, as
determined by comparing the hashes of auxsecret sent in the DH
messages. If they don’t match, s2 MUST be set to null.

The shared secret s3 MUST be set to the value of pbxsecret if and

only if both parties have matching values for pbxsecret, as
determined by comparing the hashes of pbxsecret sent in the DH
messages. If they don’t match, s3 MUST be set to null.

If s1, s2, or s3 have null values, they are assumed to have a zero
length for the purposes of hashing them later during the s0
calculation in Section 4.4.1.4.

The comparison of hashes of rs1, rs2, auxsecret, and pbxsecret is

described in Section 4.3.1.

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4.3.1. Calculation and Comparison of Hashes of Shared Secrets

Both parties calculate a set of non-invertible hashes (implemented

via the MAC defined in Section 5.1.2.1) of shared secrets that may be
present in each of their caches. These hashes are truncated to the
leftmost 64 bits:

rs1IDr = MAC(rs1, "Responder")

rs2IDr = MAC(rs2, "Responder")

auxsecretIDr = MAC(auxsecret, Responder’s H3)

pbxsecretIDr = MAC(pbxsecret, "Responder")

rs1IDi = MAC(rs1, "Initiator")

rs2IDi = MAC(rs2, "Initiator")

auxsecretIDi = MAC(auxsecret, Initiator’s H3)

pbxsecretIDi = MAC(pbxsecret, "Initiator")

The responder sends rs1IDr, rs2IDr, auxsecretIDr, and pbxsecretIDr in

the DHPart1 message. The initiator sends rs1IDi, rs2IDi,
auxsecretIDi, and pbxsecretIDi in the DHPart2 message.

The responder uses the locally computed rs1IDi, rs2IDi, auxsecretIDi,

and pbxsecretIDi to compare against the corresponding fields in the
received DHPart2 message. The initiator uses the locally computed
rs1IDr, rs2IDr, auxsecretIDr, and pbxsecretIDr to compare against the
corresponding fields in the received DHPart1 message.

From these comparisons, s1, s2, and s3 are calculated per the methods
described in Section 4.3. The secrets corresponding to matching
hashes are kept while the secrets corresponding to the non-matching
ones are replaced with a null, which is assumed to have a zero length
for the purposes of hashing them later. The resulting s1, s2, and s3
values are used later to calculate s0 in Section 4.4.1.4.

For example, consider two ZRTP endpoints who share secrets rs1 and
pbxsecret (defined in Section 7.3.1). During the comparison, rs1ID
and pbxsecretID will match but auxsecretID will not. As a result,
s1 = rs1, s2 will be null, and s3 = pbxsecret.

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4.3.2. Handling a Shared Secret Cache Mismatch

A shared secret cache mismatch is defined to mean that we expected a

cache match because rs1 exists in our local cache, but we computed a
null value for s1 (per the method described in Section 4.3).

If one party has a cached shared secret and the other party does not,
this indicates one of two possible situations. Either there is a
MiTM attack or one of the legitimate parties has lost their cached
shared secret by some mishap. Perhaps they inadvertently deleted
their cache or their cache was lost or disrupted due to restoring
their disk from an earlier backup copy. The party that has the
surviving cache entry can easily detect that a cache mismatch has
occurred, because they expect their own cached secret to match the
other party’s cached secret, but it does not match. It is possible
for both parties to detect this condition if both parties have
surviving cached secrets that have fallen out of sync, due perhaps to
one party restoring from a disk backup.

If either party discovers a cache mismatch, the user agent who makes
this discovery must treat this as a possible security event and MUST
alert their own user that there is a heightened risk of a MiTM
attack, and that the user should verbally compare the SAS with the
other party to ascertain that no MiTM attack has occurred. If a
cache mismatch is detected and it is not possible to compare the SAS,
either because the user interface does not support it or because one
or both endpoints are unmanned devices, and no other SAS comparison
mechanism is available, the session MAY be terminated.

The session need not be terminated on a cache mismatch event if:

o the mechanism described in Section 8.1.1 is available, which

allows authentication of the DH exchange without human assistance,
or

o any mechanism is available to determine if the SAS matches. This

would require either circumstances that allow human verbal
comparisons of the SAS or by use of the OPTIONAL digital signature
feature on the SAS hash, as described in Section 7.2.

Even if the user interface does not permit an SAS comparison, the
human user MUST be warned and may elect to proceed with the call at
their own risk.

If and only if a cache mismatch event occurs, the cache update

mechanism in Section 4.6.1 is affected, requiring the user to verify
the SAS before the cache is updated. The user will thus be alerted
of this security condition on every call until the SAS is verified.

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This is described in Section 4.6.1.1.

Here is a non-normative example of a cache-mismatch alert message

from a ZRTP user agent (specifically, [Zfone]), designed for a
desktop PC graphical user interface environment. It is by no means
required that the alert be this detailed:

We expected the other party to have a shared secret cached from a

previous call, but they don’t have it. This may mean your partner
simply lost his cache of shared secrets, but it could also mean
someone is trying to wiretap you. To resolve this question you
must check the authentication string with your partner. If it
doesn’t match, it indicates the presence of a wiretapper.

If the alert is rendered by a robot voice instead of a GUI, brevity

may be more important:

Something’s wrong. You must check the authentication string with

your partner. If it doesn’t match, it indicates the presence of a
wiretapper.

A mismatch of auxsecret is handled differently than a mismatch of

rs1. An auxsecret mismatch is defined to mean that auxsecret exists
locally, but we computed a null value for s2 (per the method
described in Section 4.3). This mismatch should be made visible to
whichever user has auxsecret defined. The mismatch should be made
visible to both users if they both have auxsecret defined but they
fail to match. The severity of the user notification is
implementation dependent. Aborting the session is not required. If
auxsecret matches, it should not excuse a mismatch of rs1, which
still requires a strong warning to the user.

4.4. DH and Non-DH Key Agreements

The next step is the generation of a secret for deriving SRTP keying
material. ZRTP uses Diffie-Hellman and two non-Diffie-Hellman modes,
described in the following subsections.

4.4.1. Diffie-Hellman Mode

The purpose of the Diffie-Hellman (either Finite Field Diffie-Hellman

or Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman) exchange is for the two ZRTP
endpoints to generate a new shared secret, s0. In addition, the
endpoints discover if they have any cached or previously stored
shared secrets in common, and it uses them as part of the calculation
of the session keys.

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Because the DH exchange affects the state of the retained shared

secret cache, only one in-process ZRTP DH exchange may occur at a
time between two ZRTP endpoints. Otherwise, race conditions and
cache integrity problems will result. When multiple media streams
are established in parallel between the same pair of ZRTP endpoints
(determined by the ZIDs in the Hello messages), only one can be
processed. Once that exchange completes with Confirm2 and Conf2ACK
messages, another ZRTP DH exchange can begin. This constraint does
not apply when Multistream mode key agreement is used since the
cached shared secrets are not affected.

4.4.1.1. Hash Commitment in Diffie-Hellman Mode

From the intersection of the algorithms in the sent and received

Hello messages, the initiator chooses a hash, cipher, auth tag, Key
Agreement Type, and SAS Type to be used.

A Diffie-Hellman mode is selected by setting the Key Agreement Type

in the Commit to one of the DH or Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman
(ECDH) values from the table in Section 5.1.5. In this mode, the key
agreement begins with the initiator choosing a fresh random Diffie-
Hellman (DH) secret value (svi) based on the chosen Key Agreement
Type value, and computing the public value. (Note that to speed up
processing, this computation can be done in advance.) For guidance
on generating random numbers, see Section 4.8.

For Finite Field Diffie-Hellman, the value for the DH generator g,

the DH prime p, and the length of the DH secret value, svi, are
defined in Section 5.1.5.

pvi = g^svi mod p

where g and p are determined by the Key Agreement Type value. The DH
public value pvi value is formatted as a big-endian octet string and
fixed to the bit-length of the DH prime; leading zeros MUST NOT be
truncated.

For Elliptic Curve DH, pvi is calculated and formatted according to

the ECDH specification in Section 5.1.5, which refers in detail to
certain sections of NIST SP 800-56A [NIST-SP800-56A].

The hash commitment is performed by the initiator of the ZRTP

exchange. The hash value of the initiator, hvi, includes a hash of
the entire DHPart2 message as shown in Figure 9 (which includes the
Diffie-Hellman public value, pvi), and the responder’s Hello message
(where ’||’ means concatenation). The hvi hash is truncated to 256
bits:

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

hvi = hash(initiator’s DHPart2 message ||

responder’s Hello message)

Note that the Hello message includes the fields shown in Figure 3.

The information from the responder’s Hello message is included in the

hash calculation to prevent a bid-down attack by modification of the
responder’s Hello message.

The initiator sends the hvi in the Commit message.

The use of hash commitment in the DH exchange constrains the attacker

to only one guess to generate the correct Short Authentication String
(SAS) (Section 7) in his attack, which means the SAS can be quite
short. A 16-bit SAS, for example, provides the attacker only one
chance out of 65536 of not being detected. Without this hash
commitment feature, a MiTM attacker would acquire both the pvi and
pvr public values from the two parties before having to choose his
own two DH public values for his MiTM attack. He could then use that
information to quickly perform a bunch of trial DH calculations for
both sides until he finds two with a matching SAS. To raise the cost
of this birthday attack, the SAS would have to be much longer. The
Short Authentication String would have to become a Long
Authentication String, which would be unacceptable to the user. A
hash commitment precludes this attack by forcing the MiTM to choose
his own two DH public values before learning the public values of
either of the two parties.

4.4.1.2. Responder Behavior in Diffie-Hellman Mode

Upon receipt of the Commit message, the responder generates its own
fresh random DH secret value, svr, and computes the public value.
(Note that to speed up processing, this computation can be done in
advance, with no need to discard this computation if both endpoints
chose the same algorithm via Section 4.1.2.) For guidance on random
number generation, see Section 4.8.

For Finite Field Diffie-Hellman, the value for the DH generator g,

the DH prime p, and the length of the DH secret value, svr, are
defined in Section 5.1.5.

pvr = g^svr mod p

The pvr value is formatted as a big-endian octet string, fixed to the

bit-length of the DH prime; leading zeros MUST NOT be truncated.

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For Elliptic Curve DH, pvr is calculated and formatted according to

the ECDH specification in Section 5.1.5, which refers in detail to
certain sections of NIST SP 800-56A.

Upon receipt of the DHPart2 message, the responder checks that the
initiator’s DH public value is not equal to 1 or p-1. An attacker
might inject a false DHPart2 message with a value of 1 or p-1 for
g^svi mod p, which would cause a disastrously weak final DH result to
be computed. If pvi is 1 or p-1, the user SHOULD be alerted of the
attack and the protocol exchange MUST be terminated. Otherwise, the
responder computes its own value for the hash commitment using the DH
public value (pvi) received in the DHPart2 message and its own Hello
message and compares the result with the hvi received in the Commit
message. If they are different, a MiTM attack is taking place and
the user is alerted and the protocol exchange terminated.

The responder then calculates the Diffie-Hellman result:

DHResult = pvi^svr mod p

4.4.1.3. Initiator Behavior in Diffie-Hellman Mode

Upon receipt of the DHPart1 message, the initiator checks that the
responder’s DH public value is not equal to 1 or p-1. An attacker
might inject a false DHPart1 message with a value of 1 or p-1 for
g^svr mod p, which would cause a disastrously weak final DH result to
be computed. If pvr is 1 or p-1, the user should be alerted of the
attack and the protocol exchange MUST be terminated.

The initiator then sends a DHPart2 message containing the initiator’s

DH public value and the set of calculated shared secret IDs as
defined in Section 4.3.1.

The initiator calculates the same Diffie-Hellman result using:

DHResult = pvr^svi mod p

4.4.1.4. Shared Secret Calculation for DH Mode

A hash of the received and sent ZRTP messages in the current ZRTP
exchange in the following order is calculated by both parties:

total_hash = hash(Hello of responder || Commit || DHPart1 ||

DHPart2)

Note that only the ZRTP messages (Figures 3, 5, 8, and 9), not the
entire ZRTP packets, are included in the total_hash.

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For both the initiator and responder, the DHResult is formatted as a

big-endian octet string and fixed to the width of the DH prime;
leading zeros MUST NOT be truncated. For example, for a 3072-bit p,
DHResult would be a 384 octet value, with the first octet the most
significant. DHResult may also be the result of an ECDH calculation,
which is discussed in Section 5.1.5.

Key | Size of
Agreement | DHResult
------------------------
DH-3072 | 384 octets
------------------------
DH-2048 | 256 octets
------------------------
ECDH P-256 | 32 octets
------------------------
ECDH P-384 | 48 octets
------------------------

The authors believe the calculation of the final shared secret, s0,
is in compliance with the recommendations in Sections 5.8.1 and
6.1.2.1 of NIST SP 800-56A [NIST-SP800-56A]. This is done by hashing
a concatenation of a number of items, including the DHResult, the
ZID’s of the initiator (ZIDi) and the responder (ZIDr), the
total_hash, and the set of non-null shared secrets as described in
Section 4.3.

In Section 5.8.1 of [NIST-SP800-56A], NIST requires certain

parameters to be hashed together in a particular order, which NIST
refers to as: Z, AlgorithmID, PartyUInfo, PartyVInfo, SuppPubInfo,
and SuppPrivInfo. In our implementation, our DHResult corresponds to
Z, "ZRTP-HMAC-KDF" corresponds to AlgorithmID, our ZIDi and ZIDr
correspond to PartyUInfo and PartyVInfo, our total_hash corresponds
to SuppPubInfo, and the set of three shared secrets s1, s2, and s3
corresponds to SuppPrivInfo. NIST also requires a 32-bit big-endian
integer counter to be included in the hash each time the hash is
computed, which we have set to the fixed value of 1 because we only
compute the hash once. NIST refers to the final hash output as
DerivedKeyingMaterial, which corresponds to our s0 in this
calculation.

s0 = hash(counter || DHResult || "ZRTP-HMAC-KDF" || ZIDi ||

ZIDr || total_hash || len(s1) || s1 || len(s2) ||
s2 || len(s3) || s3)

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Note that temporary values s1, s2, and s3 were calculated per the
methods described in Section 4.3. DHResult, s1, s2, and s3 MUST all
be erased from memory immediately after they are used to calculate
s0.

The length of the DHResult field was implicitly agreed to by the

negotiated DH prime size. The length of total_hash is implicitly
determined by the negotiated hash algorithm. All of the explicit
length fields, len(), in the above hash are 32-bit big-endian
integers, giving the length in octets of the field that follows.
Some members of the set of shared secrets (s1, s2, and s3) may have
lengths of zero if they are null (not shared) and are each preceded
by a 4-octet length field. For example, if s2 is null, len(s2) is
0x00000000, and s2 itself would be absent from the hash calculation,
which means len(s3) would immediately follow len(s2). While
inclusion of ZIDi and ZIDr may be redundant, because they are
implicitly included in the total_hash, we explicitly include them
here to follow NIST SP 800-56A. The fixed-length string "ZRTP-HMAC-
KDF" (not null-terminated) identifies for what purpose the resulting
s0 will be used, which is to serve as the key derivation key for the
ZRTP HMAC-based key derivation function (KDF) defined in
Section 4.5.1 and used in Section 4.5.3.

The authors believe ZRTP DH mode is in full compliance with two

relevant NIST documents that cover key derivations. First, Section
5.8.1 of [NIST-SP800-56A] computes what NIST refers to as
DerivedKeyingMaterial, which ZRTP refers to as s0. This s0 then
serves as the key derivation key, which NIST refers to as KI in the
key derivation function described in Sections 5 and 5.1 of
[NIST-SP800-108], to derive all the rest of the subkeys needed by
ZRTP. For ECDH mode, the authors believe the s0 calculation is also
in compliance with Section 3.1 of the National Security Agency’s
(NSA’s) Suite B Implementer’s Guide to NIST SP 800-56A
[NSA-Suite-B-Guide-56A].

The ZRTP key derivation function (KDF) (Section 4.5.1) requires the
use of a KDF Context field (per [NIST-SP800-108] guidelines), which
should include the ZIDi, ZIDr, and a nonce value known to both
parties. The total_hash qualifies as a nonce value, because its
computation included nonce material from the initiator’s Commit
message and the responder’s Hello message.

KDF_Context = (ZIDi || ZIDr || total_hash)

At this point in DH mode, the two endpoints proceed to the key

derivations of ZRTPSess and the rest of the keys in Section 4.5.2,
now that there is a defined s0.

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4.4.2. Preshared Mode

The Preshared key agreement mode can be used to generate SRTP keys
and salts without a DH calculation, instead relying on a shared
secret from previous DH calculations between the endpoints.

This key agreement mode is useful to rapidly re-establish a secure

session between two parties who have recently started and ended a
secure session that has already performed a DH key agreement, without
performing another lengthy DH calculation, which may be desirable on
slow processors in resource-limited environments. Preshared mode
MUST NOT be used for adding additional media streams to an existing
call. Multistream mode MUST be used for this purpose.

In the most severe resource-limited environments, Preshared mode may

be useful with processors that cannot perform a DH calculation in an
ergonomically acceptable time limit. Shared key material may be
manually provisioned between two such endpoints in advance and still
allow a limited subset of functionality. Such a "better than
nothing" implementation would have to be regarded as non-compliant
with the ZRTP specification, but it could interoperate in Preshared
(and if applicable, Multistream) mode with a compliant ZRTP endpoint.

Because Preshared mode affects the state of the retained shared

secret cache, only one in-process ZRTP Preshared exchange may occur
at a time between two ZRTP endpoints. This rule is explained in more
detail in Section 4.4.1, and applies for the same reasons as in DH
mode.

Preshared mode is only included in this specification to meet the

R-REUSE requirement in the Media Security Requirements [RFC5479]
document. A series of preshared-keyed calls between two ZRTP
endpoints should use a DH key exchange periodically. Preshared mode
is only used if a cached shared secret has been established in an
earlier session by a DH exchange, as discussed in Section 4.9.

4.4.2.1. Commitment in Preshared Mode

Preshared mode is selected by setting the Key Agreement Type to

Preshared in the Commit message. This results in the same call flow
as Multistream mode. The principal difference between Multistream
mode and Preshared mode is that Preshared mode uses a previously
cached shared secret, rs1, instead of an active ZRTP Session key,
ZRTPSess, as the initial keying material.

Preshared mode depends on having a reliable shared secret in its

cache. Before Preshared mode is used, the initial DH exchange that
gave rise to the shared secret SHOULD have used at least one of these

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

anti-MiTM mechanisms: 1) A verbal comparison of the SAS, evidenced by

the SAS Verified flag, or 2) an end-to-end integrity-protected
delivery of the a=zrtp-hash in the signaling (Section 8.1.1), or 3) a
digital signature on the sashash (Section 7.2).

4.4.2.2. Initiator Behavior in Preshared Mode

The Commit message (Figure 7) is sent by the initiator of the ZRTP

exchange. From the intersection of the algorithms in the sent and
received Hello messages, the initiator chooses a hash, cipher, auth
tag, Key Agreement Type, and SAS Type to be used.

To assemble a Preshared commit, we must first construct a temporary

preshared_key, which is constructed from one of several possible
combinations of cached key material, depending on what is available
in the shared secret cache. If rs1 is not available in the
initiator’s cache, then Preshared mode MUST NOT be used.

preshared_key = hash(len(rs1) || rs1 || len(auxsecret) || auxsecret ||

len(pbxsecret) || pbxsecret)

All of the explicit length fields, len(), in the above hash are 32-
bit big-endian integers, giving the length in octets of the field
that follows. Some members of the set of shared secrets (rs1,
auxsecret, and pbxsecret) may have lengths of zero if they are null
(not available), and are each preceded by a 4-octet length field.
For example, if auxsecret is null, len(auxsecret) is 0x00000000, and
auxsecret itself would be absent from the hash calculation, which
means len(pbxsecret) would immediately follow len(auxsecret).

In place of hvi in the Commit message, two smaller fields are

inserted by the initiator:

- A random nonce of length 4 words (16 octets).

- A keyID = MAC(preshared_key, "Prsh") truncated to 64 bits.

Note: Since the nonce is used to calculate different SRTP key and
salt pairs for each session, a duplication will result in the same
key and salt being generated for the two sessions, which would
have disastrous security consequences.

4.4.2.3. Responder Behavior in Preshared Mode

The responder uses the received keyID to search for matching key
material in its cache. It does this by computing a preshared_key
value and keyID value using the same formula as the initiator,
depending on what is available in the responder’s local cache. If

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the locally computed keyID does not match the received keyID in the
Commit, the responder recomputes a new preshared_key and keyID from a
different subset of shared keys from the cache, dropping auxsecret,
pbxsecret, or both from the hash calculation, until a matching
preshared_key is found or it runs out of possibilities. Note that
rs2 is not included in the process.

If it finds the appropriate matching shared key material, it is used

to derive s0 and a new ZRTPSess key, as described in the next section
on shared secret calculation, Section 4.4.2.4.

If the responder determines that it does not have a cached shared

secret from a previous DH exchange, or it fails to match the keyID
hash from the initiator with any combination of its shared keys, it
SHOULD respond with its own DH Commit message. This would reverse
the roles and the responder would become the initiator, because the
DH Commit must always "trump" the Preshared Commit message as
described in Section 4.2. The key exchange would then proceed using
DH mode. However, if a severely resource-limited responder lacks the
computing resources to respond in a reasonable time with a DH Commit,
it MAY respond with a ZRTP Error message (Section 5.9) indicating
that no shared secret is available.

If both sides send Preshared Commit messages initiating a secure

session at the same time, the contention is resolved and the
initiator/responder roles are settled according to Section 4.2, and
the protocol proceeds.

In Preshared mode, both the DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages are skipped.
After receiving the Commit message from the initiator, the responder
sends the Confirm1 message after calculating this stream’s SRTP keys,
as described below.

4.4.2.4. Shared Secret Calculation for Preshared Mode

Preshared mode requires that the s0 and ZRTPSess keys be derived from
the preshared_key, and this must be done in a way that guarantees
uniqueness for each session. This is done by using nonce material
from both parties: the explicit nonce in the initiator’s Preshared
Commit message (Figure 7) and the H3 field in the responder’s Hello
message (Figure 3). Thus, both parties force the resulting shared
secret to be unique for each session.

A hash of the received and sent ZRTP messages in the current ZRTP
exchange for the current media stream is calculated:

total_hash = hash(Hello of responder || Commit)

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Note that only the ZRTP messages (Figures 3 and 7), not the entire
ZRTP packets, are included in the total_hash.

The ZRTP key derivation function (KDF) (Section 4.5.1) requires the
use of a KDF Context field (per [NIST-SP800-108] guidelines), which
should include the ZIDi, ZIDr, and a nonce value known to both
parties. The total_hash qualifies as a nonce value, because its
computation included nonce material from the initiator’s Commit
message and the responder’s Hello message.

KDF_Context = (ZIDi || ZIDr || total_hash)

The s0 key is derived via the ZRTP key derivation function

(Section 4.5.1) from preshared_key and the nonces implicitly included
in the total_hash. The nonces also ensure KDF_Context is unique for
each session, which is critical for security.

s0 = KDF(preshared_key, "ZRTP PSK", KDF_Context,

negotiated hash length)

The preshared_key MUST be erased as soon as it has been used to

calculate s0.

At this point in Preshared mode, the two endpoints proceed to the key
derivations of ZRTPSess and the rest of the keys in Section 4.5.2,
now that there is a defined s0.

4.4.3. Multistream Mode

The Multistream key agreement mode can be used to generate SRTP keys
and salts for additional media streams established between a pair of
endpoints. Multistream mode cannot be used unless there is an active
SRTP session established between the endpoints, which means a ZRTP
Session key is active. This ZRTP Session key can be used to generate
keys and salts without performing another DH calculation. In this
mode, the retained shared secret cache is not used or updated. As a
result, multiple ZRTP Multistream mode exchanges can be processed in
parallel between two endpoints.

Multistream mode is also used to resume a secure call that has gone
clear using a GoClear message as described in Section 4.7.2.1.

When adding additional media streams to an existing call, Multistream

mode MUST be used. The first media stream MUST use either DH mode or
Preshared mode. Only one DH exchange or Preshared exchange is
performed, just for the first media stream. The DH exchange or
Preshared exchange MUST be completed for the first media stream
before Multistream mode is used to add any other media streams. In a

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Multistream session, a ZRTP endpoint MUST use the same ZID for all
media streams, matching the ZID used in the first media stream.

4.4.3.1. Commitment in Multistream Mode

Multistream mode is selected by the initiator setting the Key

Agreement Type to "Mult" in the Commit message (Figure 6). The
Cipher Type, Auth Tag Length, and Hash in Multistream mode SHOULD be
set by the initiator to the same as the values as in the initial DH
Mode Commit. The SAS Type is ignored as there is no SAS
authentication in this mode.

Note: This requirement is needed since some endpoints cannot

support different SRTP algorithms for different media streams.
However, in the case of Multistream mode being used to go secure
after a GoClear, the requirement to use the same SRTP algorithms
is relaxed if there are no other active SRTP sessions.

In place of hvi in the Commit, a random nonce of length 4 words (16

octets) is chosen. Its value MUST be unique for all nonce values
chosen for active ZRTP sessions between a pair of endpoints. If a
Commit is received with a reused nonce value, the ZRTP exchange MUST
be immediately terminated.

Note: Since the nonce is used to calculate different SRTP key and
salt pairs for each media stream, a duplication will result in the
same key and salt being generated for the two media streams, which
would have disastrous security consequences.

If a Commit is received selecting Multistream mode, but the responder

does not have a ZRTP Session Key available, the exchange MUST be
terminated. Otherwise, the responder proceeds to the next section on
shared secret calculation, Section 4.4.3.2.

If both sides send Multistream Commit messages at the same time, the
contention is resolved and the initiator/responder roles are settled
according to Section 4.2, and the protocol proceeds.

In Multistream mode, both the DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages are

skipped. After receiving the Commit message from the initiator, the
responder sends the Confirm1 message after calculating this stream’s
SRTP keys, as described below.

4.4.3.2. Shared Secret Calculation for Multistream Mode

In Multistream mode, each media stream requires that a set of keys be

derived from the ZRTPSess key, and this must be done in a way that
guarantees uniqueness for each media stream. This is done by using

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nonce material from both parties: the explicit nonce in the

initiator’s Multistream Commit message (Figure 6) and the H3 field in
the responder’s Hello message (Figure 3). Thus, both parties force
the resulting shared secret to be unique for each media stream.

A hash of the received and sent ZRTP messages in the current ZRTP
exchange for the current media stream is calculated:

total_hash = hash(Hello of responder || Commit)

This refers to the Hello and Commit messages for the current media
stream, which is using Multistream mode, not the original media
stream that included a full DH key agreement. Note that only the
ZRTP messages (Figures 3 and 6), not the entire ZRTP packets, are
included in the hash.

The ZRTP key derivation function (KDF) (Section 4.5.1) requires the
use of a KDF Context field (per [NIST-SP800-108] guidelines), which
should include the ZIDi, ZIDr, and a nonce value known to both
parties. The total_hash qualifies as a nonce value, because its
computation included nonce material from the initiator’s Commit
message and the responder’s Hello message.

KDF_Context = (ZIDi || ZIDr || total_hash)

The current stream’s SRTP keys and salts for the initiator and
responder are calculated using the ZRTP Session Key ZRTPSess and the
nonces implicitly included in the total_hash. The nonces also ensure
that KDF_Context will be unique for each media stream, which is
critical for security. For each additional media stream, a separate
s0 is derived from ZRTPSess via the ZRTP key derivation function
(Section 4.5.1):

s0 = KDF(ZRTPSess, "ZRTP MSK", KDF_Context,

negotiated hash length)

Note that the ZRTPSess key was previously derived from material that
also includes a different and more inclusive total_hash from the
entire packet sequence that performed the original DH exchange for
the first media stream in this ZRTP session.

At this point in Multistream mode, the two endpoints begin key

derivations in Section 4.5.3.

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4.5. Key Derivations

4.5.1. The ZRTP Key Derivation Function

To derive keys from a shared secret, ZRTP uses an HMAC-based key

derivation function, or KDF. It is used throughout Section 4.5.3 and
in other sections. The HMAC function for the KDF is based on the
negotiated hash algorithm defined in Section 5.1.2.

The authors believe the ZRTP KDF is in full compliance with the
recommendations in NIST SP 800-108 [NIST-SP800-108]. Section 7.5 of
the NIST document describes "key separation", which is a security
requirement for the cryptographic keys derived from the same key
derivation key. The keys shall be separate in the sense that the
compromise of some derived keys will not degrade the security
strength of any of the other derived keys or the security strength of
the key derivation key. Strong preimage resistance is provided.

The ZRTP KDF runs the NIST pseudorandom function (PRF) in counter
mode, with only a single iteration of the counter. The NIST PRF is
based on the HMAC function. The ZRTP KDF never has to generate more
than 256 bits (or 384 bits for Suite B applications) of output key
material, so only a single invocation of the HMAC function is needed.

The ZRTP KDF is defined in this manner, per Sections 5 and 5.1 of
[NIST-SP800-108]:

KDF(KI, Label, Context, L) = HMAC(KI, i || Label ||

0x00 || Context || L)

The HMAC in the KDF is keyed by KI, which is a secret key derivation
key that is unknown to the wiretapper (for example, s0). The HMAC is
computed on a concatenated set of nonsecret fields that are defined
as follows. The first field is a 32-bit big-endian integer counter
(i) required by NIST to be included in the HMAC each time the HMAC is
computed, which we have set to the fixed value of 0x000001 because we
only compute the HMAC once. Label is a string of nonzero octets that
identifies the purpose for the derived keying material. The octet
0x00 is a delimiter required by NIST. The NIST KDF formula has a
"Context" field that includes ZIDi, ZIDr, and some optional nonce
material known to both parties. L is a 32-bit big-endian positive
integer, not to exceed the length in bits of the output of the HMAC.
The output of the KDF is truncated to the leftmost L bits. If SHA-
384 is the negotiated hash algorithm, the HMAC would be HMAC-SHA-384;
thus, the maximum value of L would be 384, the negotiated hash
length.

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The ZRTP KDF is not to be confused with the SRTP KDF defined in
[RFC3711].

4.5.2. Deriving ZRTPSess Key and SAS in DH or Preshared Modes

Both DH mode and Preshared mode (but not Multistream mode) come to
this common point in the protocol to derive ZRTPSess and the SAS from
s0, via the ZRTP Key Derivation Function (Section 4.5.1). At this
point, s0 has been calculated, as well as KDF_Context. These
calculations are done only for the first media stream, not for
Multistream mode.

The ZRTPSess key is used only for these two purposes: 1) to generate
the additional s0 keys (Section 4.4.3.2) for adding additional media
streams to this session in Multistream mode, and 2) to generate the
pbxsecret (Section 7.3.1) that may be cached for use in future
sessions. The ZRTPSess key is kept for the duration of the call
signaling session between the two ZRTP endpoints. That is, if there
are two separate calls between the endpoints (in SIP terms, separate
SIP dialogs), then a ZRTP Session Key MUST NOT be used across the two
call signaling sessions. ZRTPSess MUST be destroyed no later than
the end of the call signaling session.

ZRTPSess = KDF(s0, "ZRTP Session Key", KDF_Context,

negotiated hash length)

Note that KDF_Context is unique for each media stream, but only the
first media stream is permitted to calculate ZRTPSess.

There is only one Short Authentication String (SAS) (Section 7)

computed per call, which is applicable to all media streams derived
from a single DH key agreement in a ZRTP session. KDF_Context is
unique for each media stream, but only the first media stream is
permitted to calculate sashash.

sashash = KDF(s0, "SAS", KDF_Context, 256)

sasvalue = sashash [truncated to leftmost 32 bits]

Despite the exposure of the SAS to the two parties, the rest of the
keying material is protected by the key separation properties of the
KDF (Section 4.5.1).

ZRTP-enabled VoIP clients may need to support additional forms of

communication, such as text chat, instant messaging, or file
transfers. These other forms of communication may need to be
encrypted, and would benefit from leveraging the ZRTP key exchange
used for the VoIP part of the call. In that case, more key material

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MAY be derived and "exported" from the ZRTP protocol and provided as
a shared secret to the VoIP client for these non-VoIP purposes. The
application can use this exported key in application-specific ways,
outside the scope of the ZRTP protocol.

ExportedKey = KDF(s0, "Exported key", KDF_Context,

negotiated hash length)

Only one ExportedKey is computed per call. KDF_Context is unique for

each media stream, but only the first media stream is permitted to
calculate ExportedKey.

The application may use this exported key to derive other subkeys for
various non-ZRTP purposes, via a KDF using separate KDF label strings
defined by the application. This key or its derived subkeys can be
used for encryption, or used to authenticate other key exchanges
carried out by the application, protected by ZRTP’s MiTM defense
umbrella. The exported key and its descendants may be used for as
long as needed by the application, maintained in a separate crypto
context that may outlast the VoIP session.

At this point in DH mode or Preshared mode, the two endpoints proceed

on to the key derivations in Section 4.5.3, now that there is a
defined s0 and ZRTPSess key.

4.5.3. Deriving the Rest of the Keys from s0

DH mode, Multistream mode, and Preshared mode all come to this common
point in the protocol to derive a set of keys from s0. It can be
assumed that s0 has been calculated, as well the ZRTPSess key and
KDF_Context. A separate s0 key is associated with each media stream.

Subkeys are not drawn directly from s0, as done in NIST SP 800-56A.
To enhance key separation, ZRTP uses s0 to key a Key Derivation
Function (Section 4.5.1) based on [NIST-SP800-108]. Since s0 already
included total_hash in its derivation, it is redundant to use
total_hash again in the KDF Context in all the invocations of the KDF
keyed by s0. Nonetheless, NIST SP 800-108 always requires KDF
Context to be defined for the KDF, and nonce material is required in
some KDF invocations (especially for Multistream mode and Preshared
mode), so total_hash is included as a nonce in the KDF Context.

Separate SRTP master keys and master salts are derived for use in
each direction for each media stream. Unless otherwise specified,
ZRTP uses SRTP with no Master Key Identifier (MKI), 32-bit
authentication using HMAC-SHA1, AES-CM 128 or 256-bit key length,
112-bit session salt key length, 2^48 key derivation rate, and SRTP
prefix length 0. Secure RTCP (SRTCP) is also used, deriving the

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SRTCP keys from the same master keys and salts as SRTP, using the
mechanisms specified in [RFC3711], without requiring a separate ZRTP
negotiation for RTCP.

The ZRTP initiator encrypts and the ZRTP responder decrypts packets
by using srtpkeyi and srtpsalti, while the ZRTP responder encrypts
and the ZRTP initiator decrypts packets by using srtpkeyr and
srtpsaltr. The SRTP key and salt values are truncated (taking the
leftmost bits) to the length determined by the chosen SRTP profile.
These are generated by:

srtpkeyi = KDF(s0, "Initiator SRTP master key", KDF_Context,

negotiated AES key length)

srtpsalti = KDF(s0, "Initiator SRTP master salt", KDF_Context, 112)

srtpkeyr = KDF(s0, "Responder SRTP master key", KDF_Context,

negotiated AES key length)

srtpsaltr = KDF(s0, "Responder SRTP master salt", KDF_Context, 112)

The MAC keys are the same length as the output of the underlying hash
function in the KDF and are thus generated without truncation. They
are used only by ZRTP and not by SRTP. Different MAC keys are needed
for the initiator and the responder to ensure that GoClear messages
in each direction are unique and can not be cached by an attacker and
reflected back to the endpoint.

mackeyi = KDF(s0, "Initiator HMAC key", KDF_Context,

negotiated hash length)

mackeyr = KDF(s0, "Responder HMAC key", KDF_Context,

negotiated hash length)

ZRTP keys are generated for the initiator and responder to use to
encrypt the Confirm1 and Confirm2 messages. They are truncated to
the same size as the negotiated SRTP key size.

zrtpkeyi = KDF(s0, "Initiator ZRTP key", KDF_Context,

negotiated AES key length)

zrtpkeyr = KDF(s0, "Responder ZRTP key", KDF_Context,

negotiated AES key length)

All key material is destroyed as soon as it is no longer needed, no

later than the end of the call. s0 is erased in Section 4.6.1, and
the rest of the session key material is erased in Sections 4.7.2.1
and 4.7.3.

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4.6. Confirmation

The Confirm1 and Confirm2 messages (Figure 10) contain the cache
expiration interval (defined in Section 4.9) for the newly generated
retained shared secret. The flagoctet is an 8-bit unsigned integer
made up of these flags: the PBX Enrollment flag (E) defined in
Section 7.3.1, the SAS Verified flag (V) defined in Section 7.1, the
Allow Clear flag (A) defined in Section 4.7.2, and the Disclosure
flag (D) defined in Section 11.

flagoctet = (E * 2^3) + (V * 2^2) + (A * 2^1) + (D * 2^0)

Part of the Confirm1 and Confirm2 messages are encrypted using full-
block Cipher Feedback Mode and contain a 128-bit random Cipher
FeedBack (CFB) Initialization Vector (IV). The Confirm1 and Confirm2
messages also contain a MAC covering the encrypted part of the
Confirm1 or Confirm2 message that includes a string of zeros, the
signature length, flag octet, cache expiration interval, signature
type block (if present), and signature (Section 7.2) (if present).
For the responder:

confirm_mac = MAC(mackeyr, encrypted part of Confirm1)

For the initiator:

confirm_mac = MAC(mackeyi, encrypted part of Confirm2)

The mackeyi and mackeyr keys are computed in Section 4.5.3.

The exchange is completed when the responder sends either the

Conf2ACK message or the responder’s first SRTP media packet (with a
valid SRTP auth tag). The initiator MUST treat the first valid SRTP
media from the responder as equivalent to receiving a Conf2ACK. The
responder may respond to Confirm2 with either SRTP media, Conf2ACK,
or both, in whichever order the responder chooses (or whichever order
the "cloud" chooses to deliver them).

4.6.1. Updating the Cache of Shared Secrets

After receiving the Confirm messages, both parties must now update
their retained shared secret rs1 in their respective caches, provided
the following conditions hold:

(1) This key exchange is either DH or Preshared mode, not

Multistream mode, which does not update the cache.

(2) Depending on the values of the cache expiration intervals that

are received in the two Confirm messages, there are some

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scenarios that do not update the cache, as explained in

Section 4.9.

(3) The responder MUST receive the initiator’s Confirm2 message

before updating the responder’s cache.

(4) The initiator MUST receive either the responder’s Conf2ACK

message or the responder’s SRTP media (with a valid SRTP auth
tag) before updating the initiator’s cache.

The cache update may also be affected by a cache mismatch, according

to Section 4.6.1.1.

For DH mode only, before updating the retained shared secret rs1 in
the cache, each party first discards their old rs2 and copies their
old rs1 to rs2. The old rs1 is saved to rs2 because of the risk of
session interruption after one party has updated his own rs1 but
before the other party has enough information to update her own rs1.
If that happens, they may regain cache sync in the next session by
using rs2 (per Section 4.3). This mitigates the well-known Two
Generals’ Problem [Byzantine]. The old rs1 value is not saved in
Preshared mode.

For DH mode and Preshared mode, both parties compute a new rs1 value
from s0 via the ZRTP key derivation function (Section 4.5.1):

rs1 = KDF(s0, "retained secret", KDF_Context, 256)

Note that KDF_Context is unique for each media stream, but only the
first media stream is permitted to update rs1.

Each media stream has its own s0. At this point in the protocol for
each media stream, the corresponding s0 MUST be erased.

4.6.1.1. Cache Update Following a Cache Mismatch

If a shared secret cache mismatch (as defined in Section 4.3.2) is

detected in the current session, it indicates a possible MiTM attack.
However, there may be evidence to the contrary, if either one of the
following conditions are met:

o Successful use of the mechanism described in Section 8.1.1, but

only if fully supported by end-to-end integrity-protected delivery
of the a=zrtp-hash in the signaling via SIP Identity [RFC4474] or
better still, Dan Wing’s SIP Identity using Media Path
[SIP-IDENTITY]. This allows authentication of the DH exchange
without human assistance.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

o A good signature is received and verified using the digital

signature feature on the SAS hash, as described in Section 7.2, if
this feature is supported.

If there is a cache mismatch in the absence of the aforementioned

mitigating evidence, the cache update MUST be delayed in the current
session until the user verbally compares the SAS with his partner
during the call and confirms a successful SAS verify via his user
interface as described in Section 7.1. If the session ends before
that happens, the cache update is not performed, leaving the rs1/rs2
values unmodified in the cache. Regardless of whether a cache
mismatch occurs, s0 must still be erased.

If no cache entry exists, as is the case in the initial call, the

cache update is handled in the normal fashion.

4.7. Termination

A ZRTP session is normally terminated at the end of a call, but it

may be terminated early by either the Error message or the GoClear
message.

4.7.1. Termination via Error Message

The Error message (Section 5.9) is used to terminate an in-progress

ZRTP exchange due to an error. The Error message contains an integer
Error Code for debugging purposes. The termination of a ZRTP key
agreement exchange results in no updates to the cached shared secrets
and deletion of all crypto context for that media stream. The ZRTP
Session key, ZRTPSess, is only deleted if all ZRTP media streams that
are using it are terminated.

Because no key agreement has been reached, the Error message cannot
use the same MAC protection as the GoClear message. A denial of
service is possible by injecting fake Error messages. (However, even
if the Error message were somehow designed with integrity protection,
it would raise other questions. What would a badly formed Error
message mean if it were sent to report a badly formed message? A
good message?)

4.7.2. Termination via GoClear Message

The GoClear message (Section 5.11) is used to switch from SRTP to

RTP, usually because the user has chosen to do that by pressing a
button. The GoClear uses a MAC of the Message Type Block sent in the
GoClear message computed with the mackey derived from the shared
secret. This MAC is truncated to the leftmost 64 bits. When sent by
the initiator:

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

clear_mac = MAC(mackeyi, "GoClear ")

When sent by the responder:

clear_mac = MAC(mackeyr, "GoClear ")

Both of these MACs are calculated across the 8-octet "GoClear "
Message Type Block, including the trailing space.

A GoClear message that does not receive a ClearACK response must be

resent. If a GoClear message is received with a bad MAC, ClearACK
MUST NOT be sent and the GoClear MUST NOT be acted on by the
recipient, but it MAY be processed as a security exception, perhaps
by logging or alerting the user.

A ZRTP endpoint MAY choose to accept GoClear messages after the

session has switched to SRTP, allowing the session to revert to RTP.
This is indicated in the Confirm1 or Confirm2 messages (Figure 10) by
setting the Allow Clear flag (A). If an endpoint sets the Allow
Clear (A) flag in their Confirm message, it indicates that they
support receiving GoClear messages.

A ZRTP endpoint that receives a GoClear MUST authenticate the message

by checking the clear_mac. If the message authenticates, the
endpoint stops sending SRTP packets, and generates a ClearACK in
response. It MUST also delete all the crypto key material for all
the SRTP media streams, as defined in Section 4.7.2.1.

Until confirmation from the user is received (e.g., clicking a

button, pressing a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) key, etc.), the
ZRTP endpoint MUST NOT resume sending RTP packets. The endpoint then
renders to the user an indication that the media session has switched
to clear mode and waits for confirmation from the user. This blocks
the flow of sensitive discourse until the user is forced to take
notice that he’s no longer protected by encryption. To prevent
pinholes from closing or NAT bindings from expiring, the ClearACK
message MAY be resent at regular intervals (e.g., every 5 seconds)
while waiting for confirmation from the user. After confirmation of
the notification is received from the user, the sending of RTP
packets may begin.

After sending a GoClear message, the ZRTP endpoint stops sending SRTP
packets. When a ClearACK is received, the ZRTP endpoint deletes the
crypto context for the SRTP session, as defined in Section 4.7.2.1,
and may then resume sending RTP packets.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

In the event a ClearACK is not received before the retransmissions of

GoClear are exhausted, the key material is deleted, as defined in
Section 4.7.2.1.

After the users have transitioned from SRTP media back to RTP media
(clear mode), they may decide later to return to secure mode by
manual activation, usually by pressing a GO SECURE button. In that
case, a new secure session is initiated by the party that presses the
button, by sending a new Commit message, leading to a new session key
negotiation. It is not necessary to send another Hello message, as
the two parties have already done that at the start of the call and
thus have already discovered each other’s ZRTP capabilities. It is
possible for users to toggle back and forth between clear and secure
modes multiple times in the same session, just as they could in the
old days of secure PSTN phones.

4.7.2.1. Key Destruction for GoClear Message

All SRTP session key material MUST be erased by the receiver of the
GoClear message upon receiving a properly authenticated GoClear. The
same key destruction MUST be done by the sender of GoClear message,
upon receiving the ClearACK. This must be done for the key material
for all of the media streams.

All key material that would have been erased at the end of the SIP
session MUST be erased, as described in Section 4.7.3, with the
single exception of ZRTPSess. In this case, ZRTPSess is destroyed in
a manner different from the other key material. Both parties replace
ZRTPSess with a KDF-derived non-invertible function of itself:

ZRTPSess = KDF(ZRTPSess, "New ZRTP Session", (ZIDi || ZIDr),

negotiated hash length)

ZRTPSess will be replaced twice if a session generates separate

GoClear messages for both audio and video streams, and the two
endpoints need not carry out the replacements in the same order.

The destruction of key material meets the requirements of Perfect

Forward Secrecy (PFS), but still preserves a new version of ZRTPSess,
so that the user can later re-initiate secure mode during the same
session without performing another Diffie-Hellman calculation using
Multistream mode, which requires and assumes the existence of
ZRTPSess with the same value at both ZRTP endpoints. A new key
negotiation after a GoClear SHOULD use a Multistream Commit message.

Note: Multistream mode is preferred over a Diffie-Hellman mode

since this does not require the generation of a new hash chain and
a new signaling exchange to exchange new Hello Hash values.

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Later, at the end of the entire call, ZRTPSess is finally destroyed

along with the other key material, as described in Section 4.7.3.

4.7.3. Key Destruction at Termination

All SRTP session key material MUST be erased by both parties at the
end of the call. In particular, the destroyed key material includes
the SRTP session keys and salts, SRTP master keys and salts, and all
material sufficient to reconstruct the SRTP keys and salts, including
ZRTPSess and s0 (although s0 should have been destroyed earlier, in
Section 4.6.1). This must be done for the key material for all of
the media streams. The only exceptions are the cached shared secrets
needed for future sessions, including rs1, rs2, and pbxsecret.

4.8. Random Number Generation

The ZRTP protocol uses random numbers for cryptographic key material,
notably for the DH secret exponents and nonces, which must be freshly
generated with each session. Whenever a random number is needed, all
of the following criteria must be satisfied:

Random numbers MUST be freshly generated, meaning that they must not
have been used in a previous calculation.

When generating a random number k of L bits in length, k MUST be

chosen with equal probability from the range of [1 < k < 2^L].

It MUST be derived from a physical entropy source, such as radio

frequency (RF) noise, acoustic noise, thermal noise, high-resolution
timings of environmental events, or other unpredictable physical
sources of entropy. One possible source of entropy for a VoIP client
would be microphone noise. For a detailed explanation of
cryptographic grade random numbers and guidance for collecting
suitable entropy, see [RFC4086] and Chapter 10 of "Practical
Cryptography" [Ferguson]. The raw entropy must be distilled and
processed through a deterministic random-bit generator (DRBG).
Examples of DRBGs may be found in [NIST-SP800-90], in [Ferguson], and
in [RFC5869]. Failure to use true entropy from the physical
environment as a basis for generating random cryptographic key
material would lead to a disastrous loss of security.

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4.9. ZID and Cache Operation

Each instance of ZRTP has a unique 96-bit random ZRTP ID, or ZID,
that is generated once at installation time. It is used to look up
retained shared secrets in a local cache. A single global ZID for a
single installation is the simplest way to implement ZIDs. However,
it is specifically not precluded for an implementation to use
multiple ZIDs, up to the limit of a separate one per callee. This
then turns it into a long-lived "association ID" that does not apply
to any other associations between a different pair of parties. It is
a goal of this protocol to permit both options to interoperate
freely. A PBX acting as a trusted man in the middle will also
generate a single ZID and use that ZID for all endpoints behind it,
as described in Section 10.

There is no protocol mechanism to invalidate a previously used ZID.

An endpoint wishing to change ZIDs would simply generate a new one
and begin using it.

The ZID should not be hard coded or hard defined in the firmware of a
product. It should be randomly generated by the software and stored
at installation or initialization time. It should be randomly
generated rather than allocated from a preassigned range of ZID
values, because 96 bits should be enough to avoid birthday collisions
in realistic scenarios.

Each time a new s0 is calculated, a new retained shared secret rs1 is

generated and stored in the cache, indexed by the ZID of the other
endpoint. This cache updating is described in Section 4.6.1. For
the new retained shared secret, each endpoint chooses a cache
expiration value that is an unsigned 32-bit integer of the number of
seconds that this secret should be retained in the cache. The time
interval is relative to when the Confirm1 message is sent or
received.

The cache intervals are exchanged in the Confirm1 and Confirm2

messages (Figure 10). The actual cache interval used by both
endpoints is the minimum of the values from the Confirm1 and Confirm2
messages. A value of 0 seconds means the newly computed shared
secret SHOULD NOT be stored in the cache, and if a cache entry
already exists from an earlier call, the stored cache interval should
be set to 0. This means if either Confirm message contains a null
cache expiration interval, and there is no cache entry already
defined, no new cache entry is created. A value of 0xffffffff means
the secret should be cached indefinitely and is the recommended
value. If the ZRTP exchange is Multistream mode, the field in the
Confirm1 and Confirm2 is set to 0xffffffff and is ignored; the cache
is not updated.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

The expiration interval need not be used to force the deletion of a

shared secret from the cache when the interval has expired. It just
means the shared secret MAY be deleted from that cache at any point
after the interval has expired without causing the other party to
note it as an unexpected security event when the next key negotiation
occurs between the same two parties. This means there need not be
perfectly synchronized deletion of expired secrets from the two
caches, and makes it easy to avoid a race condition that might
otherwise be caused by clock skew.

If the expiration interval is not properly agreed to by both

endpoints, it may later result in false alarms of MiTM attacks, due
to apparent cache mismatches (Section 4.3.2).

The relationship between a ZID and a SIP AOR is explained in

Section 12.

4.9.1. Cacheless Implementations

It is possible to implement a simplified but nonetheless useful (and

still compliant) profile of the ZRTP protocol that does not support
any caching of shared secrets. In this case, the users would have to
rely exclusively on the verbal SAS comparison for every call. That
is, unless MiTM protection is provided by the mechanisms in Section
8.1.1 or 7.2, which introduce their own forms of complexity.

If a ZRTP endpoint does not support the caching of shared secrets, it

MUST set the cache expiration interval to zero, and MUST set the SAS
Verified (V) flag (Section 7.1) to false. In addition, because the
ZID serves mainly as a cache index, the ZID would not be required to
maintain the same value across separate SIP sessions, although there
is no reason why it should not.

Cacheless operation would sacrifice the key continuity (Section 15.1)

features, as well as Preshared mode (Section 4.4.2). Further, if the
pbxsecret is also not cached, there would be no PBX trusted MiTM
(Section 7.3) features, including the PBX security enrollment
(Section 7.3.1) mechanism.

5. ZRTP Messages

All ZRTP messages use the message format defined in Figure 2. All
word lengths referenced in this specification are 32 bits, or 4
octets. All integer fields are carried in network byte order, that
is, most-significant byte (octet) first, commonly known as big-
endian.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 0 0 1|Not Used (set to zero) | Sequence Number |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Magic Cookie ’ZRTP’ (0x5a525450) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source Identifier |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| ZRTP Message (length depends on Message Type) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| CRC (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 2: ZRTP Packet Format

The Sequence Number is a count that is incremented for each ZRTP

packet sent. The count is initialized to a random value. This is
useful in estimating ZRTP packet loss and also detecting when ZRTP
packets arrive out of sequence.

The ZRTP Magic Cookie is a 32-bit string that uniquely identifies a

ZRTP packet and has the value 0x5a525450.

Source Identifier is the SSRC number of the RTP stream to which this
ZRTP packet relates. For cases of forking or forwarding, RTP, and
hence ZRTP, may arrive at the same port from several different
sources -- each of these sources will have a different SSRC and may
initiate an independent ZRTP protocol session. SSRC collisions would
be disruptive to ZRTP. SSRC collision handling procedures are
described in Section 4.1.

This format is clearly identifiable as non-RTP due to the first two

bits being zero, which looks like RTP version 0, which is not a valid
RTP version number. It is clearly distinguishable from STUN since
the Magic Cookies are different. The 12 unused bits are set to zero
and MUST be ignored when received. In early versions of this spec,
ZRTP messages were encapsulated in RTP header extensions, which made
ZRTP an eponymous variant of RTP. In later versions, the packet
format changed to make it syntactically distinguishable from RTP.

The ZRTP messages are defined in Figures 3 to 17 and are of variable

length.

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The ZRTP protocol uses a 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) as

defined in RFC 4960, Appendix B [RFC4960], in each ZRTP packet to
detect transmission errors. ZRTP packets are typically transported
by UDP, which carries its own built-in 16-bit checksum for integrity,
but ZRTP does not rely on it. This is because of the effect of an
undetected transmission error in a ZRTP message. For example, an
undetected error in the DH exchange could appear to be an active man-
in-the-middle attack. A false announcement of this by ZRTP clients
can be psychologically distressing. The probability of such a false
alarm hinges on a mere 16-bit checksum that usually protects UDP
packets, so more error detection is needed. For these reasons, this
belt-and-suspenders approach is used to minimize the chance of a
transmission error affecting the ZRTP key agreement.

The CRC is calculated across the entire ZRTP packet shown in

Figure 2, including the ZRTP header and the ZRTP message, but not
including the CRC field. If a ZRTP message fails the CRC check, it
is silently discarded.

5.1. ZRTP Message Formats

ZRTP messages are designed to simplify endpoint parsing requirements

and to reduce the opportunities for buffer overflow attacks (a good
goal of any security extension should be to not introduce new attack
vectors).

ZRTP uses a block of 8 octets (2 words) to encode the Message Type.

4-octet (1 word) blocks are used to encode Hash Type, Cipher Type,
Key Agreement Type, and Authentication Tag Type. The values in the
blocks are ASCII strings that are extended with spaces (0x20) to make
them the desired length. Currently defined block values are listed
in Tables 1-6.

Additional block values may be defined and used.

ZRTP uses this ASCII encoding to simplify debugging and make it

"Wireshark (Ethereal) friendly".

5.1.1. Message Type Block

Currently, 16 Message Type Blocks are defined -- they represent the

set of ZRTP message primitives. ZRTP endpoints MUST support the
Hello, HelloACK, Commit, DHPart1, DHPart2, Confirm1, Confirm2,
Conf2ACK, SASrelay, RelayACK, Error, ErrorACK, and PingACK message
types. ZRTP endpoints MAY support the GoClear, ClearACK, and Ping
messages. In order to generate a PingACK message, it is necessary to
parse a Ping message. Additional messages may be defined in
extensions to ZRTP.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

Message Type Block | Meaning

---------------------------------------------------
"Hello " | Hello Message
---------------------------------------------------
"HelloACK" | HelloACK Message
---------------------------------------------------
"Commit " | Commit Message
---------------------------------------------------
"DHPart1 " | DHPart1 Message
---------------------------------------------------
"DHPart2 " | DHPart2 Message
---------------------------------------------------
"Confirm1" | Confirm1 Message
---------------------------------------------------
"Confirm2" | Confirm2 Message
---------------------------------------------------
"Conf2ACK" | Conf2ACK Message
---------------------------------------------------
"Error " | Error Message
---------------------------------------------------
"ErrorACK" | ErrorACK Message
---------------------------------------------------
"GoClear " | GoClear Message
---------------------------------------------------
"ClearACK" | ClearACK Message
---------------------------------------------------
"SASrelay" | SASrelay Message
---------------------------------------------------
"RelayACK" | RelayACK Message
---------------------------------------------------
"Ping " | Ping Message
---------------------------------------------------
"PingACK " | PingACK Message
---------------------------------------------------

Table 1. Message Type Block Values

5.1.2. Hash Type Block

The hash algorithm and its related MAC algorithm are negotiated via
the Hash Type Block found in the Hello message (Section 5.2) and the
Commit message (Section 5.4).

All ZRTP endpoints MUST support a Hash Type of SHA-256 [FIPS-180-3].

SHA-384 SHOULD be supported and MUST be supported if ECDH-384 is
used. Additional Hash Types MAY be used, such as the NIST SHA-3 hash
[SHA-3] when it becomes available. Note that the Hash Type refers to

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

the hash algorithm that will be used throughout the ZRTP key
exchange, not the hash algorithm to be used in the SRTP
Authentication Tag.

The choice of the negotiated Hash Type is coupled to the Key

Agreement Type, as explained in Section 5.1.5.

Hash Type Block | Meaning

----------------------------------------------------------
"S256" | SHA-256 Hash defined in FIPS 180-3
----------------------------------------------------------
"S384" | SHA-384 Hash defined in FIPS 180-3
----------------------------------------------------------
"N256" | NIST SHA-3 256-bit hash (when published)
----------------------------------------------------------
"N384" | NIST SHA-3 384-bit hash (when published)
----------------------------------------------------------

Table 2. Hash Type Block Values

At the time of this writing, the NIST SHA-3 hashes [SHA-3] are not
yet available. NIST is expected to publish SHA-3 in 2012, as a
successor to the SHA-2 hashes in [FIPS-180-3].

5.1.2.1. Negotiated Hash and MAC Algorithm

ZRTP makes use of message authentication codes (MACs) that are keyed
hashes based on the negotiated Hash Type. For the SHA-2 and SHA-3
hashes, the negotiated MAC is the HMAC based on the negotiated hash.
This MAC function is also used in the ZRTP key derivation function
(Section 4.5.1).

The HMAC function is defined in [FIPS-198-1]. A discussion of the

general security of the HMAC construction may be found in [RFC2104].
Test vectors for HMAC-SHA-256 and HMAC-SHA-384 may be found in
[RFC4231].

The negotiated Hash Type does not apply to the hash used in the
digital signature defined in Section 7.2. For example, even if the
negotiated Hash Type is SHA-256, the digital signature may use SHA-
384 if an Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) P-384
signature key is used. Digital signatures are optional in ZRTP.

Except for the aforementioned digital signatures, and the special

cases noted in Section 5.1.2.2, all the other hashes and MACs used
throughout the ZRTP protocol will use the negotiated Hash Type.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

A future hash may include its own built-in MAC, not based on the HMAC
construct, for example, the Skein hash function [Skein]. If NIST
chooses such a hash as the SHA-3 winner, Hash Types "N256", and
"N384" will still use the related HMAC as the negotiated MAC. If an
implementer wishes to use Skein and its built-in MAC as the
negotiated MAC, new Hash Types must be used.

5.1.2.2. Implicit Hash and MAC Algorithm

While most of the hash and MAC usage in ZRTP is defined by the
negotiated Hash Type (Section 5.1.2), some hashes and MACs must be
precomputed prior to negotiations, and thus cannot have their
algorithms negotiated during the ZRTP exchange. They are implicitly
predetermined to use SHA-256 [FIPS-180-3] and HMAC-SHA-256.

These are the hashes and MACs that MUST use the Implicit hash and MAC
algorithm:

The hash chain H0-H3 defined in Section 9.

The MACs that are keyed by this hash chain, as defined in

Section 8.1.1.

The Hello Hash in the a=zrtp-hash attribute defined in

Section 8.1.

ZRTP defines a method for negotiating different ZRTP protocol

versions (Section 4.1.1). SHA-256 is the Implicit Hash and HMAC-SHA-
256 is the Implicit MAC for ZRTP protocol version 1.10. Future ZRTP
protocol versions may, if appropriate, use another hash algorithm as
the Implicit Hash, such as the NIST SHA-3 hash [SHA-3], when it
becomes available. For example, a future SIP packet may list two
a=zrtp-hash SDP attributes, one based on SHA-256 for ZRTP version
1.10, and another based on SHA-3 for ZRTP version 2.00.

5.1.3. Cipher Type Block

The block cipher algorithm is negotiated via the Cipher Type Block
found in the Hello message (Section 5.2) and the Commit message
(Section 5.4).

All ZRTP endpoints MUST support AES-128 (AES1) and MAY support AES-
192 (AES2), AES-256 (AES3), or other Cipher Types. The Advanced
Encryption Standard is defined in [FIPS-197].

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

The use of AES-128 in SRTP is defined by [RFC3711]. The use of AES-

192 and AES-256 in SRTP is defined by [RFC6188]. The choice of the
AES key length is coupled to the Key Agreement Type, as explained in
Section 5.1.5.

Other block ciphers may be supported that have the same block size
and key sizes as AES. If implemented, they may be used anywhere in
ZRTP or SRTP in place of the AES, in the same modes of operation and
key size. Notably, in counter mode to replace AES-CM in [RFC3711]
and [RFC6188], as well as in CFB mode to encrypt a portion of the
Confirm message (Figure 10) and SASrelay message (Figure 16). ZRTP
endpoints MAY support the TwoFish [TwoFish] block cipher.

Cipher Type Block | Meaning

-------------------------------------------------
"AES1" | AES with 128-bit keys
-------------------------------------------------
"AES2" | AES with 192-bit keys
-------------------------------------------------
"AES3" | AES with 256-bit keys
-------------------------------------------------
"2FS1" | TwoFish with 128-bit keys
-------------------------------------------------
"2FS2" | TwoFish with 192-bit keys
-------------------------------------------------
"2FS3" | TwoFish with 256-bit keys
-------------------------------------------------

Table 3. Cipher Type Block Values

5.1.4. Auth Tag Type Block

All ZRTP endpoints MUST support HMAC-SHA1 authentication tags for

SRTP, with both 32-bit and 80-bit length tags as defined in
[RFC3711].

ZRTP endpoints MAY support 32-bit and 64-bit SRTP authentication tags
based on the Skein hash function [Skein]. The Skein-512-MAC key
length is fixed at 256 bits for this application, and the output
length is adjustable. The Skein MAC is defined in Sections 2.6 and
4.3 of [Skein] and is not based on the HMAC construct. Reference
implementations for Skein may be found at [Skein1]. A Skein-based
MAC is significantly more efficient than HMAC-SHA1, especially for
short SRTP payloads.

The Skein MAC key is computed by the SRTP key derivation function,
which is also referred to as the AES-CM PRF, or pseudorandom
function. This is defined either in [RFC3711] or in [RFC6188],

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

depending on the selected SRTP AES key length. To compute a Skein

MAC key, the SRTP PRF output for the authentication key is left
untruncated at 256 bits, instead of the usual truncated length of 160
bits (the key length used by HMAC-SHA1).

Auth Tag Type Block | Meaning

----------------------------------------------------------
"HS32" | 32-bit authentication tag based on
| HMAC-SHA1 as defined in RFC 3711.
----------------------------------------------------------
"HS80" | 80-bit authentication tag based on
| HMAC-SHA1 as defined in RFC 3711.
----------------------------------------------------------
"SK32" | 32-bit authentication tag based on
| Skein-512-MAC as defined in [Skein],
| with 256-bit key, 32-bit MAC length.
----------------------------------------------------------
"SK64" | 64-bit authentication tag based on
| Skein-512-MAC as defined in [Skein],
| with 256-bit key, 64-bit MAC length.
----------------------------------------------------------

Table 4. Auth Tag Type Values

Implementers should be aware that AES-GCM and AES-CCM for SRTP are
expected to become available when [SRTP-AES-GCM] is published as an
RFC. If an implementer wishes to use these modes when they become
available, new Auth Tag Types must be added.

5.1.5. Key Agreement Type Block

All ZRTP endpoints MUST support DH3k, SHOULD support Preshared, and
MAY support EC25, EC38, and DH2k.

If a ZRTP endpoint supports multiple concurrent media streams, such

as audio and video, it MUST support Multistream (Section 4.4.3) mode.
Also, if a ZRTP endpoint supports the GoClear message
(Section 4.7.2), it SHOULD support Multistream, to be used if the two
parties choose to return to the secure state after going Clear (as
explained in Section 4.7.2.1).

For Finite Field Diffie-Hellman, ZRTP endpoints MUST use the DH

parameters defined in [RFC3526], as follows. DH3k uses the 3072-bit
modular exponentiation group (MODP). DH2k uses the 2048-bit MODP
group. The DH generator g is 2. The random Diffie-Hellman secret
exponent SHOULD be twice as long as the AES key length. If AES-128
is used, the DH secret value SHOULD be 256 bits long. If AES-256 is
used, the secret value SHOULD be 512 bits long.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

If Elliptic Curve DH is used, the ECDH algorithm and key generation

is from [NIST-SP800-56A]. The curves used are from [NSA-Suite-B],
which uses the same curves as ECDSA defined by [FIPS-186-3], and can
also be found in RFC 5114, Sections 2.6 through 2.8 [RFC5114]. ECDH
test vectors may be found in RFC 5114, appendices A.6 through A.8
[RFC5114]. The validation procedures are from [NIST-SP800-56A],
Section 5.6.2.6, method 3, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Partial
Validation. Both the X and Y coordinates of the point on the curve
are sent, in the first and second half of the ECDH public value,
respectively. The ECDH result returns only the X coordinate, as
specified in SP 800-56A. Useful strategies for implementing ECC may
be found in [RFC6090].

The choice of the negotiated hash algorithm (Section 5.1.2) is

coupled to the choice of Key Agreement Type. If ECDH-384 (EC38) is
chosen as the key agreement, the negotiated hash algorithm MUST be
either SHA-384 or the corresponding SHA-3 successor.

The choice of AES key length is coupled to the choice of Key

Agreement Type. If EC38 is chosen as the key agreement, AES-256
(AES3) SHOULD be used but AES-192 MAY be used. If DH3k or EC25 is
chosen, any AES key size MAY be used. Note that SRTP as defined in
[RFC3711] only supports AES-128.

DH2k is intended to provide acceptable security for low power

applications, or for applications that require faster key
negotiations. NIST asserts in Table 4 of [NIST-SP800-131A] that DH-
2048 is safe to use through 2013. The security of DH2k can be
augmented by implementing ZRTP’s key continuity features
(Section 15.1). DH2k SHOULD use AES-128. If an implementor must use
slow hardware, DH2k should precede DH3k in the Hello message.

ECDH-521 SHOULD NOT be used, due to disruptive computational delays.

These delays may lead to exhaustion of the retransmission schedule,
unless both endpoints have very fast hardware. Note that ECDH-521 is
not part of NSA Suite B.

ZRTP also defines two non-DH modes, Multistream and Preshared, in

which the SRTP key is derived from a shared secret and some nonce
material.

The table below lists the pv length in words and DHPart1 and DHPart2
message length in words for each Key Agreement Type Block.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

Key Agreement | pv | message | Meaning

Type Block | words | words |
-----------------------------------------------------------
"DH3k" | 96 | 117 | DH mode with p=3072 bit prime
| | | per RFC 3526, Section 4.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"DH2k" | 64 | 85 | DH mode with p=2048 bit prime
| | | per RFC 3526, Section 3.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"EC25" | 16 | 37 | Elliptic Curve DH, P-256
| | | per RFC 5114, Section 2.6
-----------------------------------------------------------
"EC38" | 24 | 45 | Elliptic Curve DH, P-384
| | | per RFC 5114, Section 2.7
-----------------------------------------------------------
"EC52" | 33 | 54 | Elliptic Curve DH, P-521
| | | per RFC 5114, Section 2.8
| | | (deprecated - do not use)
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Prsh" | - | - | Preshared Non-DH mode
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Mult" | - | - | Multistream Non-DH mode
-----------------------------------------------------------

Table 5. Key Agreement Type Block Values

5.1.6. SAS Type Block

The SAS Type determines how the SAS is rendered to the user so that
the user may verbally compare it with his partner over the voice
channel. This allows detection of a MiTM attack.

All ZRTP endpoints MUST support the base32 and MAY support the
base256 rendering schemes for the Short Authentication String, and
other SAS rendering schemes. See Section 4.5.2 for how the sasvalue
is computed and Section 7 for how the SAS is used.

SAS Type Block | Meaning

---------------------------------------------------
"B32 " | Short Authentication String using
| base32 encoding
---------------------------------------------------
"B256" | Short Authentication String using
| base256 encoding (PGP Word List)
---------------------------------------------------

Table 6. SAS Type Block Values

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

For the SAS Type of "B256", the most-significant (leftmost) 16 bits

of the 32-bit sasvalue are rendered in network byte order using the
PGP Word List [pgpwordlist] [Juola1][Juola2].

For the SAS Type of "B32 ", the most-significant (leftmost) 20 bits
of the 32-bit sasvalue are rendered as a form of base32 encoding.
The leftmost 20 bits of the sasvalue results in four base32
characters that are rendered, most-significant quintet first, to both
ZRTP endpoints. Here is a normative pseudocode implementation of the
base32 function:

char[4] base32(uint32 bits)

{ int i, n, shift;
char result[4];
for (i=0,shift=27; i!=4; ++i,shift-=5)
{ n = (bits>>shift) & 31;
result[i] = "ybndrfg8ejkmcpqxot1uwisza345h769"[n];
}
return result;
}

This base32 encoding scheme differs from RFC 4648, and was designed
(by Bryce Wilcox-O’Hearn) to represent bit sequences in a form that
is convenient for human users to manipulate with minimal ambiguity.
The unusually permuted character ordering was designed for other
applications that use bit sequences that do not end on quintet
boundaries.

5.1.7. Signature Type Block

The Signature Type Block specifies what signature algorithm is used

to sign the SAS as discussed in Section 7.2. The 4-octet Signature
Type Block, along with the accompanying signature block, are OPTIONAL
and may be present in the Confirm message (Figure 10) or the SASrelay
message (Figure 16). The signature types are given in the table
below.

Signature | Meaning
Type Block |
------------------------------------------------
"PGP " | OpenPGP Signature, per RFC 4880
|
------------------------------------------------
"X509" | ECDSA, with X.509v3 cert
| per RFC 5759 and FIPS-186-3
------------------------------------------------

Table 7. Signature Type Block Values

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

Additional details on the signature and signing key format may be

found in Section 7.2. OpenPGP signatures (Signature Type "PGP ") are
discussed in Section 7.2.1. The ECDSA curves are over prime fields
only, drawn from Appendix D.1.2 of [FIPS-186-3]. X.509v3 ECDSA
Signatures (Signature Type "X509") are discussed in Section 7.2.2.

5.2. Hello Message

The Hello message has the format shown in Figure 3.

All ZRTP messages begin with the preamble value 0x505a, then a 16-bit
length in 32-bit words. This length includes only the ZRTP message
(including the preamble and the length) but not the ZRTP packet
header or CRC. The 8-octet Message Type follows the length field.

Next, there is a 4-character string containing the version (ver) of

the ZRTP protocol, which is "1.10" for this specification. Next,
there is the Client Identifier string (cid), which is 4 words long
and identifies the vendor and release of the ZRTP software. The 256-
bit hash image H3 is defined in Section 9. The next parameter is the
ZID, the 96-bit-long unique identifier for the ZRTP endpoint, defined
in Section 4.9.

The next four bits include three flag bits:

o The Signature-capable flag (S) indicates this Hello message is

sent from a ZRTP endpoint which is able to parse and verify
digital signatures, as described in Section 7.2. If signatures
are not supported, the (S) flag MUST be set to zero.

o The MiTM flag (M) is a Boolean that is set to true if and only if
this Hello message is sent from a device, usually a PBX, that has
the capability to send an SASrelay message (Section 5.13).

o The Passive flag (P) is a Boolean normally set to false, and is

set to true if and only if this Hello message is sent from a
device that is configured to never send a Commit message
(Section 5.4). This would mean it cannot initiate secure
sessions, but may act as a responder.

The next 8 bits are unused and SHOULD be set to zero when sent and
MUST be ignored on receipt.

Next is a list of supported Hash algorithms, Cipher algorithms, SRTP

Auth Tag Types, Key Agreement Types, and SAS Types. The number of
listed algorithms are listed for each type: hc=hash count, cc=cipher
count, ac=auth tag count, kc=key agreement count, and sc=sas count.
The values for these algorithms are defined in Tables 2, 3, 4, 5, and

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

6. A count of zero means that only the mandatory-to-implement

algorithms are supported. Mandatory algorithms MAY be included in
the list. The order of the list indicates the preferences of the
endpoint. If a mandatory algorithm is not included in the list, it
is implicitly added to the end of the list for preference.

The 64-bit MAC at the end of the message is computed across the whole
message, not including the MAC, using the MAC algorithm defined in
Section 5.1.2.2. The MAC key is the sender’s H2 (defined in
Section 9), and thus the MAC cannot be checked by the receiving party
until the sender’s H2 value is known to the receiving party later in
the protocol.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Hello " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| version="1.10" (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Client Identifier (4 words) |
| |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Hash image H3 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| ZID (3 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0|S|M|P| unused (zeros)| hc | cc | ac | kc | sc |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| hash algorithms (0 to 7 values) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| cipher algorithms (0 to 7 values) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| auth tag types (0 to 7 values) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Key Agreement Types (0 to 7 values) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| SAS Types (0 to 7 values) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 3: Hello Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

5.3. HelloACK Message

The HelloACK message is used to stop retransmissions of a Hello

message. A HelloACK is sent regardless if the version number in the
Hello is supported or the algorithm list supported. The receipt of a
HelloACK stops retransmission of the Hello message. The format is
shown in the figure below. A Commit message may be sent in place of
a HelloACK by an Initiator, if a Commit message is ready to be sent
promptly.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=3 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="HelloACK" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 4: HelloACK Message Format

5.4. Commit Message

The Commit message is sent to initiate the key agreement process

after both sides have received a Hello message, which means it can
only be sent after receiving both a Hello message and a HelloACK
message. There are three subtypes of Commit messages, whose formats
are shown in Figures 5, 6, and 7.

The Commit message contains the Message Type Block, then the 256-bit
hash image H2, which is defined in Section 9. The next parameter is
the initiator’s ZID, the 96-bit-long unique identifier for the ZRTP
endpoint, which MUST have the same value as was used in the Hello
message.

Next, there is a list of algorithms selected by the initiator (hash,

cipher, auth tag type, key agreement, sas type). For a DH Commit,
the hash value hvi is a hash of the DHPart2 of the Initiator and the
Responder’s Hello message, as explained in Section 4.4.1.1.

The 64-bit MAC at the end of the message is computed across the whole
message, not including the MAC, using the MAC algorithm defined in
Section 5.1.2.2. The MAC key is the sender’s H1 (defined in
Section 9), and thus the MAC cannot be checked by the receiving party
until the sender’s H1 value is known to the receiving party later in
the protocol.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=29 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Commit " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Hash image H2 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| ZID (3 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| hash algorithm |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| cipher algorithm |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| auth tag type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Key Agreement Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| SAS Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| hvi (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 5: DH Commit Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=25 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Commit " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Hash image H2 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| ZID (3 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| hash algorithm |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| cipher algorithm |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| auth tag type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Key Agreement Type = "Mult" |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| SAS Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| nonce (4 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 6: Multistream Commit Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=27 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Commit " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Hash image H2 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| ZID (3 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| hash algorithm |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| cipher algorithm |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| auth tag type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Key Agreement Type = "Prsh" |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| SAS Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| nonce (4 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| keyID (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 7: Preshared Commit Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

5.5. DHPart1 Message

The DHPart1 message shown in Figure 8 begins the DH exchange. It is

sent by the Responder if a valid Commit message is received from the
Initiator. The length of the pvr value and the length of the DHPart1
message depends on the Key Agreement Type chosen. This information
is contained in the table in Section 5.1.5. Note that for both
Multistream and Preshared modes, no DHPart1 or DHPart2 message will
be sent.

The 256-bit hash image H1 is defined in Section 9.

The next four parameters are non-invertible hashes (computed in

Section 4.3.1) of potential shared secrets used in generating the
ZRTP secret s0. The first two, rs1IDr and rs2IDr, are the hashes of
the responder’s two retained shared secrets, truncated to 64 bits.
Next, there is auxsecretIDr, a hash of the responder’s auxsecret
(defined in Section 4.3), truncated to 64 bits. The last parameter
is a hash of the trusted MiTM PBX shared secret pbxsecret, defined in
Section 7.3.1.

The 64-bit MAC at the end of the message is computed across the whole
message, not including the MAC, using the MAC algorithm defined in
Section 5.1.2.2. The MAC key is the sender’s H0 (defined in
Section 9), and thus the MAC cannot be checked by the receiving party
until the sender’s H0 value is known to the receiving party later in
the protocol.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=depends on KA Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="DHPart1 " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Hash image H1 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| rs1IDr (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| rs2IDr (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| auxsecretIDr (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| pbxsecretIDr (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| pvr (length depends on KA Type) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 8: DHPart1 Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

5.6. DHPart2 Message

The DHPart2 message, shown in Figure 9, completes the DH exchange.

It is sent by the Initiator if a valid DHPart1 message is received
from the Responder. The length of the pvi value and the length of
the DHPart2 message depends on the Key Agreement Type chosen. This
information is contained in the table in Section 5.1.5. Note that
for both Multistream and Preshared modes, no DHPart1 or DHPart2
message will be sent.

The 256-bit hash image H1 is defined in Section 9.

The next four parameters are non-invertible hashes (computed in

Section 4.3.1) of potential shared secrets used in generating the
ZRTP secret s0. The first two, rs1IDi and rs2IDi, are the hashes of
the initiator’s two retained shared secrets, truncated to 64 bits.
Next, there is auxsecretIDi, a hash of the initiator’s auxsecret
(defined in Section 4.3), truncated to 64 bits. The last parameter
is a hash of the trusted MiTM PBX shared secret pbxsecret, defined in
Section 7.3.1.

The 64-bit MAC at the end of the message is computed across the whole
message, not including the MAC, using the MAC algorithm defined in
Section 5.1.2.2. The MAC key is the sender’s H0 (defined in
Section 9), and thus the MAC cannot be checked by the receiving party
until the sender’s H0 value is known to the receiving party later in
the protocol.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=depends on KA Type |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="DHPart2 " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Hash image H1 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| rs1IDi (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| rs2IDi (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| auxsecretIDi (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| pbxsecretIDi (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| pvi (length depends on KA Type) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 9: DHPart2 Message Format

5.7. Confirm1 and Confirm2 Messages

The Confirm1 message is sent by the Responder in response to a valid

DHPart2 message after the SRTP session key and parameters have been
negotiated. The Confirm2 message is sent by the Initiator in
response to a Confirm1 message. The format is shown in Figure 10.
The message contains the Message Type Block "Confirm1" or "Confirm2".
Next, there is the confirm_mac, a MAC computed over the encrypted
part of the message (shown enclosed by "====" in Figure 10). This
confirm_mac is keyed and computed according to Section 4.6. The next
16 octets contain the CFB Initialization Vector. The rest of the
message is encrypted using CFB and protected by the confirm_mac.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

The first field inside the encrypted region is the hash preimage H0,
which is defined in detail in Section 9.

The next 15 bits are not used and SHOULD be set to zero when sent and
MUST be ignored when received in Confirm1 or Confirm2 messages.

The next 9 bits contain the signature length. If no SAS signature

(described in Section 7.2) is present, all bits are set to zero. The
signature length is in words and includes the signature type block.
If the calculated signature octet count is not a multiple of 4, zeros
are added to pad it out to a word boundary. If no signature is
present, the overall length of the Confirm1 or Confirm2 message will
be set to 19 words.

The next 8 bits are used for flags. Undefined flags are set to zero
and ignored. Four flags are currently defined. The PBX Enrollment
flag (E) is a Boolean bit defined in Section 7.3.1. The SAS Verified
flag (V) is a Boolean bit defined in Section 7.1. The Allow Clear
flag (A) is a Boolean bit defined in Section 4.7.2. The Disclosure
Flag (D) is a Boolean bit defined in Section 11. The cache
expiration interval is defined in Section 4.9.

If the signature length (in words) is non-zero, a signature type

block will be present along with a signature block. Next, there is
the signature block. The signature block includes the signature and
the key (or a link to the key) used to generate the signature
(Section 7.2).

CFB mode [NIST-SP800-38A] is applied with a feedback length of 128

bits, a full cipher block, and the final block is truncated to match
the exact length of the encrypted data. The CFB Initialization
Vector is a 128-bit random nonce. The block cipher algorithm and the
key size are the same as the negotiated block cipher (Section 5.1.3)
for media encryption. CFB is used to encrypt the part of the
Confirm1 message beginning after the CFB IV to the end of the message
(the encrypted region is enclosed by "====" in Figure 10).

The responder uses the zrtpkeyr to encrypt the Confirm1 message. The
initiator uses the zrtpkeyi to encrypt the Confirm2 message.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=variable |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Confirm1" or "Confirm2" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| confirm_mac (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| CFB Initialization Vector (4 words) |
| |
| |
+===============================================================+
| |
| Hash preimage H0 (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Unused (15 bits of zeros) | sig len (9 bits)|0 0 0 0|E|V|A|D|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| cache expiration interval (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| optional signature type block (1 word if present) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| optional signature block (variable length) |
| . . . |
| |
| |
+===============================================================+

Figure 10: Confirm1 and Confirm2 Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

5.8. Conf2ACK Message

The Conf2ACK message is sent by the Responder in response to a valid

Confirm2 message. The message format for the Conf2ACK is shown in
the figure below. The receipt of a Conf2ACK stops retransmission of
the Confirm2 message. Note that the first SRTP media (with a valid
SRTP auth tag) from the responder also stops retransmission of the
Confirm2 message.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=3 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Conf2ACK" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 11: Conf2ACK Message Format

5.9. Error Message

The Error message is sent to terminate an in-process ZRTP key

agreement exchange due to an error. The format is shown in the
figure below. The use of the Error message is described in
Section 4.7.1.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=4 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Error " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Integer Error Code (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 12: Error Message Format

Defined hexadecimal values for the Error Code are listed in the table
below.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

Error Code | Meaning

-----------------------------------------------------------
0x10 | Malformed packet (CRC OK, but wrong structure)
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x20 | Critical software error
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x30 | Unsupported ZRTP version
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x40 | Hello components mismatch
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x51 | Hash Type not supported
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x52 | Cipher Type not supported
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x53 | Public key exchange not supported
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x54 | SRTP auth tag not supported
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x55 | SAS rendering scheme not supported
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x56 | No shared secret available, DH mode required
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x61 | DH Error: bad pvi or pvr ( == 1, 0, or p-1)
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x62 | DH Error: hvi != hashed data
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x63 | Received relayed SAS from untrusted MiTM
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x70 | Auth Error: Bad Confirm pkt MAC
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x80 | Nonce reuse
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x90 | Equal ZIDs in Hello
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x91 | SSRC collision
-----------------------------------------------------------
0xA0 | Service unavailable
-----------------------------------------------------------
0xB0 | Protocol timeout error
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x100 | GoClear message received, but not allowed
-----------------------------------------------------------

Table 8. ZRTP Error Codes

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

5.10. ErrorACK Message

The ErrorACK message is sent in response to an Error message. The

receipt of an ErrorACK stops retransmission of the Error message.
The format is shown in the figure below.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=3 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="ErrorACK" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 13: ErrorACK Message Format

5.11. GoClear Message

Support for the GoClear message is OPTIONAL in the protocol, and it

is sent to switch from SRTP to RTP. The format is shown in the
figure below. The clear_mac is used to authenticate the GoClear
message so that bogus GoClear messages introduced by an attacker can
be detected and discarded. The use of GoClear is described in
Section 4.7.2.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=5 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="GoClear " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| clear_mac (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 14: GoClear Message Format

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

5.12. ClearACK Message

Support for the ClearACK message is OPTIONAL in the protocol, and it

is sent to acknowledge receipt of a GoClear. A ClearACK is only sent
if the clear_mac from the GoClear message is authenticated.
Otherwise, no response is returned. The format is shown in the
figure below.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=3 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="ClearACK" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 15: ClearACK Message Format

5.13. SASrelay Message

The SASrelay message is sent by a trusted MiTM, most often a PBX. It

is not sent as a response to a packet, but is sent as a self-
initiated packet by the trusted MiTM (Section 7.3). It can only be
sent after the rest of the ZRTP key negotiations have completed,
after the Confirm messages and their ACKs. It can only be sent after
the trusted MiTM has finished key negotiations with the other party,
because it is the other party’s SAS that is being relayed. It is
sent with retry logic until a RelayACK message (Section 5.14) is
received or the retry schedule has been exhausted.

If a device, usually a PBX, sends an SASrelay message, it MUST have

previously declared itself as a MiTM device by setting the MiTM (M)
flag in the Hello message (Section 5.2). If the receiver of the
SASrelay message did not previously receive a Hello message with the
MiTM (M) flag set, the Relayed SAS SHOULD NOT be rendered. A
RelayACK is still sent, but no Error message is sent.

The SASrelay message format is shown in Figure 16. The message

contains the Message Type Block "SASrelay". Next, there is a MAC
computed over the encrypted part of the message (shown enclosed by
"====" in Figure 16). This MAC is keyed the same way as the
confirm_mac in the Confirm messages (see Section 4.6). The next 16
octets contain the CFB Initialization Vector. The rest of the
message is encrypted using CFB and protected by the MAC.

The next 15 bits are not used and SHOULD be set to zero when sent,
and they MUST be ignored when received in SASrelay messages.

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The next 9 bits contain the signature length. The trusted MiTM MAY
compute a digital signature on the SAS hash, as described in
Section 7.2, using a persistent signing key owned by the trusted
MiTM. If no SAS signature is present, all bits are set to zero. The
signature length is in words and includes the signature type block.
If the calculated signature octet count is not a multiple of 4, zeros
are added to pad it out to a word boundary. If no signature block is
present, the overall length of the SASrelay message will be set to 19
words.

The next 8 bits are used for flags. Undefined flags are set to zero
and ignored. Three flags are currently defined. The Disclosure Flag
(D) is a Boolean bit defined in Section 11. The Allow Clear flag (A)
is a Boolean bit defined in Section 4.7.2. The SAS Verified flag (V)
is a Boolean bit defined in Section 7.1. These flags are updated
values to the same flags provided earlier in the Confirm message, but
they are updated to reflect the new flag information relayed by the
PBX from the other party.

The next 32-bit word contains the SAS rendering scheme for the
relayed sashash, which will be the same rendering scheme used by the
other party on the other side of the trusted MiTM. Section 7.3
describes how the PBX determines whether the ZRTP client regards the
PBX as a trusted MiTM. If the PBX determines that the ZRTP client
trusts the PBX, the next 8 words contain the sashash relayed from the
other party. The first 32-bit word of the sashash contains the
sasvalue, which may be rendered to the user using the specified SAS
rendering scheme. If this SASrelay message is being sent to a ZRTP
client that does not trust this MiTM, the sashash will be ignored by
the recipient and should be set to zeros by the PBX.

If the signature length (in words) is non-zero, a signature type

block will be present along with a signature block. Next, there is
the signature block. The signature block includes the signature and
the key (or a link to the key) used to generate the signature
(Section 7.2).

CFB mode [NIST-SP800-38A] is applied with a feedback length of 128

bits, a full cipher block, and the final block is truncated to match
the exact length of the encrypted data. The CFB Initialization
Vector is a 128-bit random nonce. The block cipher algorithm and the
key size is same as the negotiated block cipher (Section 5.1.3) for
media encryption. CFB is used to encrypt the part of the SASrelay
message beginning after the CFB IV to the end of the message (the
encrypted region is enclosed by "====" in Figure 16).

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Depending on whether the trusted MiTM had taken the role of the
initiator or the responder during the ZRTP key negotiation, the
SASrelay message is encrypted with zrtpkeyi or zrtpkeyr.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=variable |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="SASrelay" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| MAC (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| CFB Initialization Vector (4 words) |
| |
| |
+===============================================================+
| Unused (15 bits of zeros) | sig len (9 bits)|0 0 0 0|0|V|A|D|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| rendering scheme of relayed SAS (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Trusted MiTM relayed sashash (8 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| optional signature type block (1 word if present) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| optional signature block (variable length) |
| . . . |
| |
| |
+===============================================================+

Figure 16: SASrelay Message Format

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5.14. RelayACK Message

The RelayACK message is sent in response to a valid SASrelay message.

The message format for the RelayACK is shown in the figure below.
The receipt of a RelayACK stops retransmission of the SASrelay
message.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=3 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="RelayACK" (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 17: RelayACK Message Format

5.15. Ping Message

The Ping and PingACK messages are unrelated to the rest of the ZRTP
protocol. No ZRTP endpoint is required to generate a Ping message,
but every ZRTP endpoint MUST respond to a Ping message with a PingACK
message.

Although Ping and PingACK messages have no effect on the rest of the
ZRTP protocol, their inclusion in this specification simplifies the
design of "bump-in-the-wire" ZRTP proxies (Section 10) (notably,
[Zfone]). It enables proxies to be designed that do not rely on
assistance from the signaling layer to map out the associations
between media streams and ZRTP endpoints.

Before sending a ZRTP Hello message, a ZRTP proxy MAY send a Ping
message as a means to sort out which RTP media streams are connected
to particular ZRTP endpoints. Ping messages are generated only by
ZRTP proxies. If neither party is a ZRTP proxy, no Ping messages
will be encountered. Ping retransmission behavior is discussed in
Section 6.

The Ping message (Figure 18) contains an "EndpointHash", defined in

Section 5.16.

The Ping message contains a version number that defines what version
of PingACK is requested. If that version number is supported by the
Ping responder, a PingACK with a format that matches that version
will be received. Otherwise, a PingACK with a lower version number
may be received.

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0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=6 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="Ping " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| version="1.10" (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| EndpointHash (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 18: Ping Message Format

5.16. PingACK Message

A PingACK message is sent only in response to a Ping. A ZRTP

endpoint MUST respond to a Ping with a PingACK message. The version
of PingACK requested is contained in the Ping message. If that
version number is supported, a PingACK with a format that matches
that version MUST be sent. Otherwise, if the version number of the
Ping is not supported, a PingACK SHOULD be sent in the format of the
highest supported version known to the Ping responder. Only version
"1.10" is supported in this specification.

The PingACK message carries its own 64-bit EndpointHash, distinct

from the EndpointHash of the other party’s Ping message. It is
REQUIRED that it be highly improbable for two participants in a call
to have the same EndpointHash and that an EndpointHash maintains a
persistent value between calls. For a normal ZRTP endpoint, such as
a ZRTP-enabled VoIP client, the EndpointHash can be just the
truncated ZID. For a ZRTP endpoint such as a PBX that has multiple
endpoints behind it, the EndpointHash must be a distinct value for
each endpoint behind it. It is recommended that the EndpointHash be
a truncated hash of the ZID of the ZRTP endpoint concatenated with
something unique about the actual endpoint or phone behind the PBX.
This may be the SIP URI of the phone, the PBX extension number, or
the local IP address of the phone, whichever is more readily
available in the application environment:

EndpointHash = hash(ZID || SIP URI of the endpoint)

EndpointHash = hash(ZID || PBX extension number of the endpoint)

EndpointHash = hash(ZID || local IP address of the endpoint)

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Any of these formulae confer uniqueness for the simple case of

terminating the ZRTP connection at the VoIP client, or the more
complex case of a PBX terminating the ZRTP connection for multiple
VoIP phones in a conference call, all sharing the PBX’s ZID, but with
separate IP addresses behind the PBX. There is no requirement for
the same hash function to be used by both parties.

The PingACK message contains the EndpointHash of the sender of the

PingACK as well as the EndpointHash of the sender of the Ping. The
Source Identifier (SSRC) received in the ZRTP header from the Ping
packet (Figure 2) is copied into the PingACK message body
(Figure 19). This SSRC is not the SSRC of the sender of the PingACK.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0| length=9 words |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Message Type Block="PingACK " (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| version="1.10" (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| EndpointHash of PingACK Sender (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| EndpointHash of Received Ping (2 words) |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source Identifier (SSRC) of Received Ping (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Figure 19: PingACK Message Format

6. Retransmissions

ZRTP uses two retransmission timers T1 and T2. T1 is used for

retransmission of Hello messages, when the support of ZRTP by the
other endpoint may not be known. T2 is used in retransmissions of
all the other ZRTP messages.

All message retransmissions MUST be identical to the initial message

including nonces, public values, etc; otherwise, hashes of the
message sequences may not agree.

Practical experience has shown that RTP packet loss at the start of
an RTP session can be extremely high. Since the entire ZRTP message
exchange occurs during this period, the defined retransmission scheme

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is defined to be aggressive. Since ZRTP packets with the exception

of the DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages are small, this should have
minimal effect on overall bandwidth utilization of the media session.

ZRTP endpoints MUST NOT exceed the bandwidth of the resulting media
session as determined by the offer/answer exchange in the signaling
layer.

The Ping message (Section 5.15) may follow the same retransmission
schedule as the Hello message, but this is not required in this
specification. Ping message retransmission is subject to
application-specific ZRTP proxy heuristics.

Hello ZRTP messages are retransmitted at an interval that starts at

T1 seconds and doubles after every retransmission, capping at 200 ms.
T1 has a recommended initial value of 50 ms. A Hello message is
retransmitted 20 times before giving up, which means the entire retry
schedule for Hello messages is exhausted after 3.75 seconds (50 + 100
+ 18*200 ms). Retransmission of a Hello ends upon receipt of a
HelloACK or Commit message.

The post-Hello ZRTP messages are retransmitted only by the session

initiator -- that is, only Commit, DHPart2, and Confirm2 are
retransmitted if the corresponding message from the responder,
DHPart1, Confirm1, and Conf2ACK, are not received. Note that the
Confirm2 message retransmission can also be stopped by receiving the
first SRTP media (with a valid SRTP auth tag) from the responder.

The GoClear, Error, and SASrelay messages may be initiated and

retransmitted by either party, and responded to by the other party,
regardless of which party is the overall session initiator. They are
retransmitted if the corresponding response message ClearACK,
ErrorACK, and RelayACK are not received.

Non-Hello (and non-Ping) ZRTP messages are retransmitted at an

interval that starts at T2 seconds and doubles after every
retransmission, capping at 1200 ms. T2 has a recommended initial
value of 150 ms. Each non-Hello message is retransmitted 10 times
before giving up, which means the entire retry schedule is exhausted
after 9.45 seconds (150 + 300 + 600 + 7*1200 ms). Only the initiator
performs retransmissions. Each message has a response message that
stops retransmissions, as shown in the table below. The higher
values of T2 means that retransmissions will likely occur only in the
event of packet loss.

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Message Acknowledgement Message

------- -----------------------
Hello HelloACK or Commit
Commit DHPart1 or Confirm1
DHPart2 Confirm1
Confirm2 Conf2ACK or SRTP media
GoClear ClearACK
Error ErrorACK
SASrelay RelayACK
Ping PingACK

Table 9. Retransmitted ZRTP Messages and Responses

The retry schedule must handle not only packet loss, but also slow or
heavily loaded peers that need additional time to perform their DH
calculations. The following mitigations are recommended:

o Slow or heavily loaded ZRTP endpoints that are at risk of taking

too long to perform their DH calculation SHOULD use a HelloACK
message instead of a Commit message to reply to a Hello from the
other party.

o If a ZRTP endpoint has evidence that the other party is a ZRTP

endpoint, by receiving a Hello message or Ping message, or by
receiving a Hello Hash in the signaling layer, it SHOULD extend
its own Hello retry schedule to span at least 12 seconds of
retries. If this extended Hello retry schedule is exhausted
without receiving a HelloACK or Commit message, a late Commit
message from the peer SHOULD still be accepted.

These recommended retransmission intervals are designed for a typical

broadband Internet connection. In some high-latency communication
channels, such as those provided by some mobile phone environments or
geostationary satellites, a different retransmission schedule may be
used. The initial value for the T1 or T2 retransmission timer should
be increased to be no less than the round-trip time provided by the
communications channel. It should take into account the time
required to transmit the entire message and the entire reply, as well
as a reasonable time estimate to perform the DH calculation.

ZRTP has its own retransmission schedule because it is carried along

with RTP, usually over UDP. In unusual cases, RTP can run over a
non-UDP transport, such as TCP or DCCP, which provides its own
built-in retransmission mechanism. It may be hard for the ZRTP
endpoint to detect that TCP is being used if media relays are
involved. The ZRTP endpoint may be sending only UDP, but there may
be a media relay along the media path that converts from UDP to TCP
for part of the journey. Or, if the ZRTP endpoint is sending TCP,

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the media relay might be converting from TCP to UDP. There have been
empirical observations of this in the wild. In cases where TCP is
used, ZRTP and TCP might together generate some extra
retransmissions. It is tempting to avoid this effect by eliminating
the ZRTP retransmission schedule when connected to a TCP channel, but
that would risk failure of the protocol, because it may not be TCP
all the way to the remote ZRTP endpoint. It only takes a few packets
to complete a ZRTP exchange, so trying to optimize out the extra
retransmissions in that scenario is not worth the risk.

After receiving a Commit message, but before receiving a Confirm2

message, if a ZRTP responder receives no ZRTP messages for more than
10 seconds, the responder MAY send a protocol timeout Error message
and terminate the ZRTP protocol.

7. Short Authentication String

This section will discuss the implementation of the Short

Authentication String, or SAS in ZRTP. The SAS can be verbally
compared by the human users reading the string aloud, or it can be
compared by validating an OPTIONAL digital signature (described in
Section 7.2) exchanged in the Confirm1 or Confirm2 messages.

The use of hash commitment in the DH exchange (Section 4.4.1.1)

constrains the attacker to only one guess to generate the correct SAS
in his attack, which means the SAS can be quite short. A 16-bit SAS,
for example, provides the attacker only one chance out of 65536 of
not being detected. How the hash commitment enables the SAS to be so
short is explained in Section 4.4.1.1.

There is only one SAS value computed per call. That is the SAS value
for the first media stream established, which is calculated in
Section 4.5.2. This SAS applies to all media streams for the same
session.

The SAS SHOULD be rendered to the user for authentication. The

rendering of the SAS value through the user interface at both
endpoints depends on the SAS Type agreed upon in the Commit message.
See Section 5.1.6 for a description of how the SAS is rendered to the
user.

The SAS is not treated as a secret value, but it must be compared to

see if it matches at both ends of the communications channel. The
two users verbally compare it using their human voices, human ears,
and human judgement. If it doesn’t match, it indicates the presence
of a MiTM attack.

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It is worse than useless and absolutely unsafe to rely on a robot

voice from the remote endpoint to compare the SAS, because a robot
voice can be trivially forged by a MiTM. The SAS verbal comparison
can only be done with a real live human at the remote endpoint.

7.1. SAS Verified Flag

The SAS Verified flag (V) is set based on the user indicating that
SAS comparison has been successfully performed. The SAS Verified
flag is exchanged securely in the Confirm1 and Confirm2 messages
(Figure 10) of the next session. In other words, each party sends
the SAS Verified flag from the previous session in the Confirm
message of the current session. It is perfectly reasonable to have a
ZRTP endpoint that never sets the SAS Verified flag, because it would
require adding complexity to the user interface to allow the user to
set it. The SAS Verified flag is not required to be set, but if it
is available to the client software, it allows for the possibility
that the client software could render to the user that the SAS verify
procedure was carried out in a previous session.

Regardless of whether there is a user interface element to allow the

user to set the SAS Verified flag, it is worth caching a shared
secret, because doing so reduces opportunities for an attacker in the
next call.

If at any time the users carry out the SAS comparison procedure, and
it actually fails to match, then this means there is a very
resourceful MiTM. If this is the first call, the MiTM was there on
the first call, which is impressive enough. If it happens in a later
call, it also means the MiTM must also know the cached shared secret,
because you could not have carried out any voice traffic at all
unless the session key was correctly computed and is also known to
the attacker. This implies the MiTM must have been present in all
the previous sessions, since the initial establishment of the first
shared secret. This is indeed a resourceful attacker. It also means
that if at any time he ceases his participation as a MiTM on one of
your calls, the protocol will detect that the cached shared secret is
no longer valid -- because it was really two different shared secrets
all along, one of them between Alice and the attacker, and the other
between the attacker and Bob. The continuity of the cached shared
secrets makes it possible for us to detect the MiTM when he inserts
himself into the ongoing relationship, as well as when he leaves.
Also, if the attacker tries to stay with a long lineage of calls, but
fails to execute a DH MiTM attack for even one missed call, he is
permanently excluded. He can no longer resynchronize with the chain
of cached shared secrets.

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A user interface element (i.e., a checkbox or button) is needed to

allow the user to tell the software the SAS verify was successful,
causing the software to set the SAS Verified flag (V), which
(together with our cached shared secret) obviates the need to perform
the SAS procedure in the next call. An additional user interface
element can be provided to let the user tell the software he detected
an actual SAS mismatch, which indicates a MiTM attack. The software
can then take appropriate action, clearing the SAS Verified flag, and
erase the cached shared secret from this session. It is up to the
implementer to decide if this added user interface complexity is
warranted.

If the SAS matches, it means there is no MiTM, which also implies it

is now safe to trust a cached shared secret for later calls. If
inattentive users don’t bother to check the SAS, it means we don’t
know whether there is or is not a MiTM, so even if we do establish a
new cached shared secret, there is a risk that our potential attacker
may have a subsequent opportunity to continue inserting himself in
the call, until we finally get around to checking the SAS. If the
SAS matches, it means no attacker was present for any previous
session since we started propagating cached shared secrets, because
this session and all the previous sessions were also authenticated
with a continuous lineage of shared secrets.

7.2. Signing the SAS

In most applications, it is desirable to avoid the added complexity

of a PKI-backed digital signature, which is why ZRTP is designed not
to require it. Nonetheless, in some applications, it may be hard to
arrange for two human users to verbally compare the SAS. Or, an
application may already be using an existing PKI and wants to use it
to augment ZRTP.

To handle these cases, ZRTP allows for an OPTIONAL signature feature,

which allows the SAS to be checked without human participation. The
SAS MAY be signed and the signature sent inside the Confirm1,
Confirm2 (Figure 10), or SASrelay (Figure 16) messages. The
signature type (Section 5.1.7), length of the signature, and the key
used to create the signature (or a link to it) are all sent along
with the signature. The signature is calculated across the entire
SAS hash result (sashash), from which the sasvalue was derived. The
signatures exchanged in the encrypted Confirm1, Confirm2, or SASrelay
messages MAY be used to authenticate the ZRTP exchange. A signature
may be sent only in the initial media stream in a DH or ECDH ZRTP
exchange, not in Multistream mode.

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Although the signature is sent, the material that is signed, the

sashash, is not sent with it in the Confirm message, since both
parties have already independently calculated the sashash. That is
not the case for the SASrelay message, which must relay the sashash.
To avoid unnecessary signature calculations, a signature SHOULD NOT
be sent if the other ZRTP endpoint did not set the (S) flag in the
Hello message (Section 5.2).

Note that the choice of hash algorithm used in the digital signature
is independent of the hash used in the sashash. The sashash is
determined by the negotiated Hash Type (Section 5.1.2), while the
hash used by the digital signature is separately defined by the
digital signature algorithm. For example, the sashash may be based
on SHA-256, while the digital signature might use SHA-384, if an
ECDSA P-384 key is used.

If the sashash (which is always truncated to 256 bits) is shorter

than the signature hash, the security is not weakened because the
hash commitment precludes the attacker from searching for sashash
collisions.

ECDSA algorithms may be used with either OpenPGP-formatted keys, or

X.509v3 certificates. If the ZRTP key exchange is ECDH, and the SAS
is signed, then the signature SHOULD be ECDSA, and SHOULD use the
same size curve as the ECDH exchange if an ECDSA key of that size is
available.

If a ZRTP endpoint supports incoming signatures (evidenced by setting

the (S) flag in the Hello message), it SHOULD be able to parse
signatures from the other endpoint in OpenPGP format and MUST be able
to parse them in X.509v3 format. If the incoming signature is in an
unsupported format, or the trust model does not lead to a trusted
introducer or a trusted certificate authority (CA), another
authentication method may be used if available, such as the SAS
compare, or a cached shared secret from a previous session. If none
of these methods are available, it is up to the ZRTP user agent and
the user to decide whether to proceed with the call, after the user
is informed.

Both ECDSA and DSA [FIPS-186-3] have a feature that allows most of
the signature calculation to be done in advance of the session,
reducing latency during call setup. This is useful for low-power
mobile handsets.

ECDSA is preferred because it has compact keys as well as compact

signatures. If the signature along with its public key certificate
are insufficiently compact, the Confirm message may become too long
for the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size, and UDP fragmentation

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may result. Some firewalls and NATs may discard fragmented UDP
packets, which would cause the ZRTP exchange to fail. It is
RECOMMENDED that a ZRTP endpoint avoid sending signatures if they
would cause UDP fragmentation. For a discussion on MTU size and PMTU
discovery, see [RFC1191] and [RFC1981].

From a packet-size perspective, ECDSA and DSA both produce equally

compact signatures for a given signature strength. DSA keys are much
bigger than ECDSA keys, but in the case of OpenPGP signatures, the
public key is not sent along with the signature.

All signatures generated MUST use only NIST-approved hash algorithms,

and MUST avoid using SHA1. This applies to both OpenPGP and X.509v3
signatures. NIST-approved hash algorithms are found in [FIPS-180-3]
or its SHA-3 successor. All ECDSA curves used throughout this spec
are over prime fields, drawn from Appendix D.1.2 of [FIPS-186-3].

7.2.1. OpenPGP Signatures

If the SAS Signature Type (Section 5.1.7) specifies an OpenPGP

signature ("PGP "), the signature-related fields are arranged as
follows.

The first field after the 4-octet Signature Type Block is the OpenPGP
signature. The format of this signature and the algorithms that
create it are specified by [RFC4880]. The signature is comprised of
a complete OpenPGP version 4 signature in binary form (not Radix-64),
as specified in RFC 4880, Section 5.2.3, enclosed in the full OpenPGP
packet syntax. The length of the OpenPGP signature is parseable from
the signature, and depends on the type and length of the signing key.

If OpenPGP signatures are supported, an implementation SHOULD NOT

generate signatures using any other signature algorithm except DSA or
ECDSA (ECDSA is a reserved algorithm type in RFC 4880), but MAY
accept other signature types from the other party. DSA signatures
with keys shorter than 2048 bits or longer than 3072 bits MUST NOT be
generated.

Implementers should be aware that ECDSA signatures for OpenPGP are

expected to become available when the work in progress [ECC-OpenPGP]
becomes an RFC. Any use of ECDSA signatures in ZRTP SHOULD NOT
generate signatures using ECDSA key sizes other than P-224, P-256,
and P-384, as defined in [FIPS-186-3].

RFC 4880, Section 5.2.3.18, specifies a way to embed, in an OpenPGP

signature, a URI of the preferred key server. The URI should be
fully specified to obtain the public key of the signing key that
created the signature. This URI MUST be present. It is up to the

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recipient of the signature to obtain the public key of the signing

key and determine its validity status using the OpenPGP trust model
discussed in [RFC4880].

The contents of Figure 20 lie inside the encrypted region of the

Confirm message (Figure 10) or the SASrelay message (Figure 16).

The total length of all the material in Figure 20, including the key
server URI, must not exceed 511 32-bit words (2044 octets). This
length, in words, is stored in the signature length field in the
Confirm or SASrelay message containing the signature. It is
desirable to avoid UDP fragmentation, so the URI should be kept
short.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Signature Type Block = "PGP " (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| OpenPGP signature |
| (variable length) |
| . . . |
| |
+===============================================================+

Figure 20: OpenPGP Signature Format

7.2.2. ECDSA Signatures with X.509v3 Certs

If the SAS Signature Type (Section 5.1.7) is "X509", the ECDSA

signature-related fields are arranged as follows.

The first field after the 4-octet Signature Type Block is the DER
encoded X.509v3 certificate (the signed public key) of the ECDSA
signing key that created the signature. The format of this
certificate is specified by the NSA’s Suite B Certificate and CRL
Profile [RFC5759].

Following the X.509v3 certificate at the next word boundary is the

ECDSA signature itself. The size of this field depends on the size
and type of the public key in the aforementioned certificate. The
format of this signature and the algorithms that create it are
specified by [FIPS-186-3]. The signature is comprised of the ECDSA
signature output parameters (r, s) in binary form, concatenated, in
network byte order, with no truncation of leading zeros. The first
half of the signature is r and the second half is s. If ECDSA P-256

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is specified, the signature fills 16 words (64 octets), 32 octets

each for r and s. If ECDSA P-384 is specified, the signature fills
24 words (96 octets), 48 octets each for r and s.

It is up to the recipient of the signature to use information in the

certificate and path discovery mechanisms to trace the chain back to
the root CA. It is recommended that end user certificates issued for
secure telephony should contain appropriate path discovery links to
facilitate this.

Figure 21 shows a certificate and an ECDSA signature. All this

material lies inside the encrypted region of the Confirm message
(Figure 10) or the SASrelay message (Figure 16).

The total length of all the material in Figure 21, including the
X.509v3 certificate, must not exceed 511 32-bit words (2044 octets).
This length, in words, is stored in the signature length field in the
Confirm or SASrelay message containing the signature. It is
desirable to avoid UDP fragmentation, so the certificate material
should be kept to a much smaller size than this. End user certs
issued for this purpose should minimize the size of extraneous
material such as legal notices.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Signature Type Block = "X509" (1 word) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Signing key’s X.509v3 certificate |
| (variable length) |
| . . . |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| ECDSA P-256 or P-384 signature |
| (16 words or 24 words) |
| . . . |
| |
+===============================================================+

Figure 21: X.509v3 ECDSA Signature Format

7.2.3. Signing the SAS without a PKI

It’s not strictly necessary to use a PKI to back the public key that
signs the SAS. For example, it is possible to use a self-signed
X.509v3 certificate or an OpenPGP key that is not signed by any other

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key. In this scenario, the same key continuity technique used by SSH
[RFC4251] may be used. The public key is cached locally the first
time it is encountered, and when the same public key is encountered
again in subsequent sessions, it’s deemed not to be a MiTM attack.
If there is no MiTM attack in the first session, there cannot be a
MiTM attack in any subsequent session. This is exactly how SSH does
it.

Of course, the security rests on the assumption that the MiTM did not
attack in the first session. That assumption seems to work most of
the time in the SSH world. The user would have to be warned the
first time a public key is encountered, just as in SSH. If possible,
the SAS should be checked before the user consents to caching the new
public key. If the SAS matches in the first session, there is no
MiTM, and it’s safe to cache the public key. If no SAS comparison is
possible, it’s up to the user, or up to the application, to decide
whether to take a leap of faith and proceed. That’s how SSH works
most of the time, because SSH users don’t have the chance to verbally
compare an SAS with anyone.

For a phone that is SIP-registered to a PBX, it may be provisioned

with the public key of the PBX, using a trusted automated
provisioning process. Even without a PKI, the phone knows that the
public key is the correct one, since it was provisioned into the
phone by a trusted provisioning mechanism. This makes it easy for
the phone to access several automated services commonly offered by a
PBX, such as voice mail or a conference bridge, where there is no
human at the PBX to do a verbal SAS compare. The same provisioning
may be used to preload the pbxsecret into the phone, which is
discussed in Section 7.3.1.

7.3. Relaying the SAS through a PBX

ZRTP is designed to use end-to-end encryption. The two parties’

verbal comparison of the short authentication string (SAS) depends on
this assumption. But in some PBX environments, such as Asterisk,
there are usage scenarios that have the PBX acting as a trusted MiTM,
which means there are two back-to-back ZRTP connections with separate
session keys and separate SASs.

For example, imagine that Bob has a ZRTP-enabled VoIP phone that has
been registered with his company’s PBX, so that it is regarded as an
extension of the PBX. Alice, whose phone is not associated with the
PBX, might dial the PBX from the outside, and a ZRTP connection is
negotiated between her phone and the PBX. She then selects Bob’s
extension from the company directory in the PBX. The PBX makes a
call to Bob’s phone (which might be offsite, many miles away from the
PBX through the Internet) and a separate ZRTP connection is

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negotiated between the PBX and Bob’s phone. The two ZRTP sessions
have different session keys and different SASs, which would render
the SAS useless for verbal comparison between Alice and Bob. They
might even mistakenly believe that a wiretapper is present because of
the SAS mismatch, causing undue alarm.

ZRTP has a mechanism for solving this problem by having the PBX relay
the Alice/PBX SAS to Bob, sending it through to Bob in a special
SASrelay message as defined in Section 5.13, which is sent after the
PBX/Bob ZRTP negotiation is complete, after the Confirm messages.
Only the PBX, acting as a special trusted MiTM (trusted by the
recipient of the SASrelay message), will relay the SAS. The SASrelay
message protects the relayed SAS from tampering via an included MAC,
similar to how the Confirm message is protected. Bob’s ZRTP-enabled
phone accepts the relayed SAS for rendering only because Bob’s phone
had previously been configured to trust the PBX. This special
trusted relationship with the PBX can be established through a
special security enrollment procedure (Section 7.3.1). After that
enrollment procedure, the PBX is treated by Bob as a special trusted
MiTM. This results in Alice’s SAS being rendered to Bob, so that
Alice and Bob may verbally compare them and thus prevent a MiTM
attack by any other untrusted MiTM.

A real "bad-guy" MiTM cannot exploit this protocol feature to mount a

MiTM attack and relay Alice’s SAS to Bob, because Bob has not
previously carried out a special registration ritual with the bad
guy. The relayed SAS would not be rendered by Bob’s phone, because
it did not come from a trusted PBX. The recognition of the special
trust relationship is achieved with the prior establishment of a
special shared secret between Bob and his PBX, which is called
pbxsecret (defined in Section 7.3.1), also known as the trusted MiTM
key.

The trusted MiTM key can be stored in a special cache at the time of
the initial enrollment (which is carried out only once for Bob’s
phone), and Bob’s phone associates this key with the ZID of the PBX,
while the PBX associates it with the ZID of Bob’s phone. After the
enrollment has established and stored this trusted MiTM key, it can
be detected during subsequent ZRTP session negotiations between the
PBX and Bob’s phone, because the PBX and the phone MUST pass the hash
of the trusted MiTM key in the DH message. It is then used as part
of the key agreement to calculate s0.

The PBX can determine whether it is trusted by the ZRTP user agent of
a phone. The presence of a shared trusted MiTM key in the key
negotiation sequence indicates that the phone has been enrolled with
this PBX and therefore trusts it to act as a trusted MiTM. During a
key agreement with two other ZRTP endpoints, the PBX may have a

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shared trusted MiTM key with both endpoints, only one endpoint, or
neither endpoint. If the PBX has a shared trusted MiTM key with
neither endpoint, the PBX MUST NOT relay the SAS. If the PBX has a
shared trusted MiTM key with only one endpoint, the PBX MUST relay
the SAS from one party to the other by sending an SASrelay message to
the endpoint with which it shares a trusted MiTM key. If the PBX has
a (separate) shared trusted MiTM key with each of the endpoints, the
PBX MUST relay the SAS to only one endpoint, not both endpoints.

Note: In the case of a PBX sharing trusted MiTM keys with both
endpoints, it does not matter which endpoint receives the relayed
SAS as long as only one endpoint receives it.

The relayed SAS fields contain the SAS rendering type and the
complete sashash. The receiver absolutely MUST NOT render the
relayed SAS if it does not come from a specially trusted ZRTP
endpoint. The security of the ZRTP protocol depends on not rendering
a relayed SAS from an untrusted MiTM, because it may be relayed by a
MiTM attacker. See the SASrelay message definition (Figure 16) for
further details.

To ensure that both Alice and Bob will use the same SAS rendering
scheme after the keys are negotiated, the PBX also sends the SASrelay
message to the unenrolled party (which does not regard this PBX as a
trusted MiTM), conveying the SAS rendering scheme, but not the
sashash, which it sets to zero. The unenrolled party will ignore the
relayed SAS field, but will use the specified SAS rendering scheme.

It is possible to route a call through two ZRTP-enabled PBXs using

this scheme. Assume Alice is a ZRTP endpoint who trusts her local
PBX in Atlanta, and Bob is a ZRTP endpoint who trusts his local PBX
in Biloxi. The call is routed from Alice to the Atlanta PBX to the
Biloxi PBX to Bob. Atlanta would relay the Atlanta-Biloxi SAS to
Alice because Alice is enrolled with Atlanta, and Biloxi would relay
the Atlanta-Biloxi SAS to Bob because Bob is enrolled with Biloxi.
The two PBXs are not assumed to be enrolled with each other in this
example. Both Alice and Bob would view and verbally compare the same
relayed SAS, the Atlanta-Biloxi SAS. No more than two trusted MiTM
nodes can be traversed with this relaying scheme. This behavior is
extended to two PBXs that are enrolled with each other, via this
rule: In the case of a PBX sharing trusted MiTM keys with both
endpoints (i.e., both enrolled with this PBX), one of which is
another PBX (evidenced by the M-flag) and one of which is a non-PBX,
the MiTM PBX must always relay the PBX-to-PBX SAS to the non-PBX
endpoint.

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A ZRTP endpoint phone that trusts a PBX to act as a trusted MiTM is

effectively delegating its own policy decisions of algorithm
negotiation to the PBX.

When a PBX is between two ZRTP endpoints and is terminating their

media streams at the PBX, the PBX presents its own ZID to the two
parties, eclipsing the ZIDs of the two parties from each other. For
example, if several different calls are routed through such a PBX to
several different ZRTP-enabled phones behind the PBX, only a single
ZID is presented to the calling party in every case -- the ZID of the
PBX itself.

The next section describes the initial enrollment procedure that

establishes a special shared secret, a trusted MiTM key, between a
PBX and a phone, so that the phone will learn to recognize the PBX as
a trusted MiTM.

7.3.1. PBX Enrollment and the PBX Enrollment Flag

Both the PBX and the endpoint need to know when enrollment is taking
place. One way of doing this is to set up an enrollment extension on
the PBX that a newly configured endpoint would call and establish a
ZRTP session. The PBX would then play audio media that offers the
user an opportunity to configure his phone to trust this PBX as a
trusted MiTM. The PBX calculates and stores the trusted MiTM shared
secret in its cache and associates it with this phone, indexed by the
phone’s ZID. The trusted MiTM PBX shared secret is derived from
ZRTPSess via the ZRTP key derivation function (Section 4.5.1) in this
manner:

pbxsecret = KDF(ZRTPSess, "Trusted MiTM key", (ZIDi || ZIDr), 256)

The pbxsecret is calculated for the whole ZRTP session, not for each
stream within a session, thus the KDF Context field in this case does
not include any stream-specific nonce material.

The PBX signals the enrollment process by setting the PBX Enrollment
flag (E) in the Confirm message (Figure 10). This flag is used to
trigger the ZRTP endpoint’s user interface to prompt the user to see
if it wants to trust this PBX and calculate and store the pbxsecret
in the cache. If the user decides to respond by activating the
appropriate user interface element (a menu item, checkbox, or
button), his ZRTP user agent calculates pbxsecret using the same
formula, and saves it in a special cache entry associated with this
PBX.

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During a PBX enrollment, the GoClear features are disabled. If the

(E) flag is set by the PBX, the PBX MUST NOT set the Allow Clear (A)
flag. Thus, (E) implies not (A). If a received Confirm message has
the (E) flag set, the (A) flag MUST be disregarded and treated as
false.

If the user elects not to enroll, perhaps because he dialed a wrong

number or does not yet feel comfortable with this PBX, he can simply
hang up and not save the pbxsecret in his cache. The PBX will have
it saved in the PBX cache, but that will do no harm. The SASrelay
scheme does not depend on the PBX trusting the phone. It only
depends on the phone trusting the PBX. It is the phone (the user)
who is at risk if the PBX abuses its MiTM privileges.

An endpoint MUST NOT store the pbxsecret in the cache without

explicit user authorization.

After this enrollment process, the PBX and the ZRTP-enabled phone
both share a secret that enables the phone to recognize the PBX as a
trusted MiTM in future calls. This means that when a future call
from an outside ZRTP-enabled caller is relayed through the PBX to
this phone, the phone will render a relayed SAS from the PBX. If the
SASrelay message comes from a MiTM that does not know the pbxsecret,
the phone treats it as a bad-guy MiTM, and refuses to render the
relayed SAS. Regardless of which party initiates any future phone
calls through the PBX, the enrolled phone or the outside phone, the
PBX will relay the SAS to the enrolled phone.

This enrollment procedure is designed primarily for phones that are

already associated with the PBX -- enterprise phones that are
"behind" the PBX. It is not intended for the countless outside
phones that are not registered to this PBX’s SIP server. It should
be regarded as part of the installation and provisioning process for
a new phone in the organization.

There are more streamlined methods to configure ZRTP user agents to

trust a PBX. In large scale deployments, the pbxsecret may be
configured into the phone by an automated provisioning process, which
may be less burdensome for the users and less error prone. This
specification does not require a manual enrollment process. Any
process that results in a pbxsecret to be computed and shared between
the PBX and the phone will suffice, as long as the user is made aware
that this puts the PBX in a position to wiretap the calls.

It is recommended that a ZRTP client not proceed with the PBX

enrollment procedure without evidence that a MiTM attack is not
taking place during the enrollment session. It would be especially
damaging if a MiTM tricks the client into enrolling with the wrong

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PBX. That would enable the malevolent MiTM to wiretap all future
calls without arousing suspicion, because he would appear to be
trusted.

8. Signaling Interactions

This section discusses how ZRTP, SIP, and SDP work together.

Note that ZRTP may be implemented without coupling with the SIP
signaling. For example, ZRTP can be implemented as a "bump in the
wire" or as a "bump in the stack" in which RTP sent by the SIP User
Agent (UA) is converted to ZRTP. In these cases, the SIP UA will
have no knowledge of ZRTP. As a result, the signaling path discovery
mechanisms introduced in this section should not be definitive --
they are a hint. Despite the absence of an indication of ZRTP
support in an offer or answer, a ZRTP endpoint SHOULD still send
Hello messages.

ZRTP endpoints that have control over the signaling path include a
ZRTP SDP attributes in their SDP offers and answers. The ZRTP
attribute, a=zrtp-hash, is used to indicate support for ZRTP and to
convey a hash of the Hello message. The hash is computed according
to Section 8.1.

Aside from the advantages described in Section 8.1, there are a

number of potential uses for this attribute. It is useful when
signaling elements would like to know when ZRTP may be utilized by
endpoints. It is also useful if endpoints support multiple methods
of SRTP key management. The ZRTP attribute can be used to ensure
that these key management approaches work together instead of against
each other. For example, if only one endpoint supports ZRTP, but
both support another method to key SRTP, then the other method will
be used instead. When used in parallel, an SRTP secret carried in an
a=keymgt [RFC4567] or a=crypto [RFC4568] attribute can be used as a
shared secret for the srtps computation defined in Section 8.2. The
ZRTP attribute is also used to signal to an intermediary ZRTP device
not to act as a ZRTP endpoint, as discussed in Section 10.

The a=zrtp-hash attribute can only be included in the SDP at the

media level since Hello messages sent in different media streams will
have unique hashes.

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The ABNF for the ZRTP attribute is as follows:

zrtp-attribute = "a=zrtp-hash:" zrtp-version zrtp-hash-value

zrtp-version = token

zrtp-hash-value = 1*(HEXDIG)

Here’s an example of the ZRTP attribute in an initial SDP offer or

answer used at the media level, using the <allOneLine> convention
defined in RFC 4475, Section 2.1 [RFC4475]:

v=0
o=bob 2890844527 2890844527 IN IP4 client.biloxi.example.com
s=
c=IN IP4 client.biloxi.example.com
t=0 0
m=audio 3456 RTP/AVP 97 33
a=rtpmap:97 iLBC/8000
a=rtpmap:33 no-op/8000
<allOneLine>
a=zrtp-hash:1.10 fe30efd02423cb054e50efd0248742ac7a52c8f91bc2
df881ae642c371ba46df
</allOneLine>

A mechanism for carrying this same zrtp-hash information in the

Jingle signaling protocol is defined in [XEP-0262].

It should be safe to send ZRTP messages even when there is no

evidence in the signaling that the other party supports it, because
ZRTP has been designed to be clearly different from RTP, having a
similar structure to STUN packets sent during an ICE exchange.

8.1. Binding the Media Stream to the Signaling Layer via the Hello Hash

Tying the media stream to the signaling channel can help prevent a
third party from inserting false media packets. If the signaling
layer contains information that ties it to the media stream, false
media streams can be rejected.

To accomplish this, the entire Hello message (Figure 3) is hashed,

using the hash algorithm defined in Section 5.1.2.2. The ZRTP packet
framing from Figure 2 is not included in the hash. The resulting
hash image is made available without truncation to the signaling
layer, where it is transmitted as a hexadecimal value in the SIP
channel using the SDP attribute a=zrtp-hash, defined in this
specification. Assuming Section 5.1.2.2 defines a 256-bit hash
length, the a=zrtp-hash field in the SDP attribute carries 64

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hexadecimal digits. Each media stream (audio or video) will have a

separate Hello message, and thus will require a separate a=zrtp-hash
in an SDP attribute. The recipient of the SIP/SDP message can then
use this hash image to detect and reject false Hello messages in the
media channel, as well as identify which media stream is associated
with this SIP call. Each Hello message hashes uniquely, because it
contains the H3 field derived from a random nonce, defined in
Section 9.

The Hello Hash as an SDP attribute is not a REQUIRED feature, because

some ZRTP endpoints do not have the ability to add SDP attributes to
the signaling. For example, if ZRTP is implemented in a hardware
bump-in-the-wire device, it might only have the ability to modify the
media packets, not the SIP packets, especially if the SIP packets are
integrity protected and thus cannot be modified on the wire. If the
SDP has no hash image of the ZRTP Hello message, the recipient’s ZRTP
user agent cannot check it, and thus will not be able to reject Hello
messages based on this hash.

After the Hello Hash is used to properly identify the ZRTP Hello
message as belonging to this particular SIP call, the rest of the
ZRTP message sequence is protected from false packet injection by
other protection mechanisms, such as the hash chaining mechanism
defined in Section 9.

An attacker who controls only the signaling layer, such as an

uncooperative VoIP service provider, may be able to deny service by
corrupting the hash of the Hello message in the SDP attribute, which
would force ZRTP to reject perfectly good Hello messages. If there
is reason to believe this is happening, the ZRTP endpoint MAY allow
Hello messages to be accepted that do not match the hash image in the
SDP attribute.

Even in the absence of SIP integrity protection, the inclusion of the

a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute, when coupled with the hash chaining
mechanism defined in Section 9, meets the R-ASSOC requirement in the
Media Security Requirements [RFC5479], which requires:

...a mechanism for associating key management messages with both

the signaling traffic that initiated the session and with
protected media traffic. It is useful to associate key management
messages with call signaling messages, as this allows the SDP
offerer to avoid performing CPU-consuming operations (e.g.,
Diffie-Hellman or public key operations) with attackers that have
not seen the signaling messages.

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The a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute becomes especially useful if the SDP is

integrity-protected end-to-end by SIP Identity [RFC4474] or better
still, Dan Wing’s SIP Identity using Media Path [SIP-IDENTITY]. This
leads to an ability to stop MiTM attacks independent of ZRTP’s SAS
mechanism, as explained in Section 8.1.1.

8.1.1. Integrity-Protected Signaling Enables Integrity-Protected DH

Exchange

If and only if the signaling path and the SDP is protected by some
form of end-to-end integrity protection, such as one of the
abovementioned mechanisms, so that it can guarantee delivery of the
a=zrtp-hash attribute without any tampering by a third party, and if
there is good reason to trust the signaling layer to protect the
interests of the end user, it is possible to authenticate the key
exchange and prevent a MiTM attack. This can be done without
requiring the users to verbally compare the SAS, by using the hash
chaining mechanism defined in Section 9 to provide a series of MAC
keys that protect the entire ZRTP key exchange. Thus, an end-to-end
integrity-protected signaling layer automatically enables an
integrity-protected Diffie-Hellman exchange in ZRTP, which in turn
means immunity from a MiTM attack. Here’s how it works.

The integrity-protected SIP SDP contains a hash commitment to the

entire Hello message. The Hello message contains H3, which provides
a hash commitment for the rest of the hash chain H0-H2 (Section 9).
The Hello message is protected by a 64-bit MAC, keyed by H2. The
Commit message is protected by a 64-bit MAC, keyed by H1. The
DHPart1 or DHPart2 messages are protected by a 64-bit MAC, keyed by
H0. The MAC protecting the Confirm messages is computed by a
different MAC key derived from the resulting key agreement. Each
message’s MAC is checked when the MAC key is received in the next
message. If a bad MAC is discovered, it MUST be treated as a
security exception indicating a MiTM attack, perhaps by logging or
alerting the user, and MUST NOT be treated as a random error. Random
errors are already discovered and quietly rejected by bad CRCs
(Figure 2).

The Hello message must be assembled before any hash algorithms are
negotiated, so an implicit predetermined hash algorithm and MAC
algorithm (both defined in Section 5.1.2.2) must be used. All of the
aforementioned MACs keyed by the hashes in the aforementioned hash
chain MUST be computed with the MAC algorithm defined in
Section 5.1.2.2, with the MAC truncated to 64 bits.

The Media Security Requirements [RFC5479] R-EXISTING requirement can

be fully met by leveraging a certificate-backed PKI in the signaling
layer to integrity protect the delivery of the a=zrtp-hash SDP

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

attribute. This would thereby protect ZRTP against a MiTM attack,

without requiring the user to check the SAS, without adding any
explicit signatures or signature keys to the ZRTP key exchange and
without any extra public key operations or extra packets.

Without an end-to-end integrity-protection mechanism in the signaling

layer to guarantee delivery of the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute without
modification by a third party, these MACs alone will not prevent a
MiTM attack. In that case, ZRTP’s built-in SAS mechanism will still
have to be used to authenticate the key exchange. At the time of
this writing, very few deployed VoIP clients offer a fully
implemented SIP stack that provides end-to-end integrity protection
for the delivery of SDP attributes. Also, end-to-end signaling
integrity becomes more problematic if E.164 numbers [RFC3824] are
used in SIP. Thus, real-world implementations of ZRTP endpoints will
continue to depend on SAS authentication for quite some time. Even
after there is widespread availability of SIP user agents that offer
integrity protected delivery of SDP attributes, many users will still
be faced with the fact that the signaling path may be controlled by
institutions that do not have the best interests of the end user in
mind. In those cases, SAS authentication will remain the gold
standard for the prudent user.

Even without SIP integrity protection, the Media Security

Requirements [RFC5479] R-ACT-ACT requirement can be met by ZRTP’s SAS
mechanism. Although ZRTP may benefit from an integrity-protected SIP
layer, it is fortunate that ZRTP’s self-contained MiTM defenses do
not actually require an integrity-protected SIP layer. ZRTP can
bypass the delays and problems that SIP integrity faces, such as
E.164 number usage, and the complexity of building and maintaining a
PKI.

In contrast, DTLS-SRTP [RFC5764] appears to depend heavily on end-to-

end integrity protection in the SIP layer. Further, DTLS-SRTP must
bear the additional cost of a signature calculation of its own, in
addition to the signature calculation the SIP layer uses to achieve
its integrity protection. ZRTP needs no signature calculation of its
own to leverage the signature calculation carried out in the SIP
layer.

8.2. Deriving the SRTP Secret (srtps) from the Signaling Layer

The shared secret calculations defined in Section 4.3 make use of the
SRTP secret (srtps), if it is provided by the signaling layer.

It is desirable for only one SRTP key negotiation protocol to be

used, and that protocol should be ZRTP. But in the event the
signaling layer negotiates its own SRTP master key and salt, using

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the SDP Security Descriptions (SDES [RFC4568]) or [RFC4567], it can

be passed from the signaling to the ZRTP layer and mixed into ZRTP’s
own shared secret calculations, without compromising security by
creating a dependency on the signaling for media encryption.

ZRTP computes srtps from the SRTP master key and salt parameters
provided by the signaling layer in this manner, truncating the result
to 256 bits:

srtps = KDF(SRTP master key, "SRTP Secret", (ZIDi || ZIDr ||

SRTP master salt), 256)

It is expected that the srtps parameter will be rarely computed or

used in typical ZRTP endpoints, because it is likely and desirable
that ZRTP will be the sole means of negotiating SRTP keys, needing no
help from [RFC4568] or [RFC4567]. If srtps is computed, it will be
stored in the auxiliary shared secret auxsecret, defined in
Section 4.3 and used in Section 4.3.1.

8.3. Codec Selection for Secure Media

Codec selection is negotiated in the signaling layer. If the

signaling layer determines that ZRTP is supported by both endpoints,
this should provide guidance in codec selection to avoid variable
bitrate (VBR) codecs that leak information.

When voice is compressed with a VBR codec, the packet lengths vary
depending on the types of sounds being compressed. This leaks a lot
of information about the content even if the packets are encrypted,
regardless of what encryption protocol is used [Wright1]. It is
RECOMMENDED that VBR codecs be avoided in encrypted calls. It is not
a problem if the codec adapts the bitrate to the available channel
bandwidth. The vulnerable codecs are the ones that change their
bitrate depending on the type of sound being compressed.

It also appears that voice activity detection (VAD) leaks information

about the content of the conversation, but to a lesser extent than
VBR. This effect can be mitigated by lengthening the VAD hangover
time by a random amount between 1 and 2 seconds, if this is feasible
in your application. Only short bursts of speech would benefit from
lengthening the VAD hangover time.

The security problems of VBR and VAD are addressed in detail by the
guidelines in [VBR-AUDIO]. It is RECOMMENDED that ZRTP endpoints
follow these guidelines.

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9. False ZRTP Packet Rejection

An attacker who is not in the media path may attempt to inject false
ZRTP protocol packets, possibly to effect a denial-of-service attack
or to inject his own media stream into the call. VoIP, by its
nature, invites various forms of denial-of-service attacks and
requires protocol features to reject such attacks. While bogus SRTP
packets may be easily rejected via the SRTP auth tag field, that can
only be applied after a key agreement is completed. During the ZRTP
key negotiation phase, other false packet rejection mechanisms are
needed. One such mechanism is the use of the total_hash in the final
shared secret calculation, but that can only detect false packets
after performing the computationally expensive Diffie-Hellman
calculation.

A lot of work has been done on the analysis of denial-of-service

attacks, especially from attackers who are not in the media path.
Such an attacker might inject false ZRTP packets to force a ZRTP
endpoint to engage in an endless series of pointless and expensive DH
calculations. To detect and reject false packets cheaply and rapidly
as soon as they are received, ZRTP uses a one-way hash chain, which
is a series of successive hash images. Before each session, the
following values are computed:

H0 = 256-bit random nonce (different for each party)

H1 = hash (H0)

H2 = hash (H1)

H3 = hash (H2)

This one-way hash chain MUST use the hash algorithm defined in
Section 5.1.2.2, truncated to 256 bits. Each 256-bit hash image is
the preimage of the next, and the sequence of images is sent in
reverse order in the ZRTP packet sequence. The hash image H3 is sent
in the Hello message, H2 is sent in the Commit message, H1 is sent in
the DHPart1 or DHPart2 messages, and H0 is sent in the Confirm1 or
Confirm2 messages. The initial random H0 nonces that each party
generates MUST be unpredictable to an attacker and unique within a
ZRTP session, which thereby forces the derived hash images H1-H3 to
also be unique and unpredictable.

The recipient checks if the packet has the correct hash preimage, by
hashing it and comparing the result with the hash image for the
preceding packet. Packets that contain an incorrect hash preimage
MUST NOT be used by the recipient, but they MAY be processed as
security exceptions, perhaps by logging or alerting the user. As

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long as these bogus packets are not used, and correct packets are
still being received, the protocol SHOULD be allowed to run to
completion, thereby rendering ineffective this denial-of-service
attack.

Note that since H2 is sent in the Commit message, and the initiator
does not receive a Commit message, the initiator computes the
responder’s missing H2 by hashing the responder’s H1. An analogous
interpolation is performed by both parties to handle the skipped
DHPart1 and DHPart2 messages in Preshared (Section 3.1.2) or
Multistream (Section 3.1.3) modes.

Because these hash images alone do not protect the rest of the
contents of the packet they reside in, this scheme assumes the
attacker cannot modify the packet contents from a legitimate party,
which is a reasonable assumption for an attacker who is not in the
media path. This covers an important range of denial-of-service
attacks. For dealing with the remaining set of attacks that involve
packet modification, other mechanisms are used, such as the
total_hash in the final shared secret calculation, and the hash
commitment in the Commit message.

Hello messages injected by an attacker may be detected and rejected

by the inclusion of a hash of the Hello message in the signaling, as
described in Section 8. This mechanism requires that each Hello
message be unique, and the inclusion of the H3 hash image meets that
requirement.

If and only if an integrity-protected signaling channel is available,

the MACs that are keyed by this hash chaining scheme can be used to
authenticate the entire ZRTP key exchange, and thereby prevent a MiTM
attack, without relying on the users verbally comparing the SAS. See
Section 8.1.1 for details.

Some ZRTP user agents allow the user to manually switch to clear mode
(via the GoClear message) in the middle of a secure call, and then
later initiate secure mode again. Many consumer client products will
omit this feature, but those that allow it may return to secure mode
again in the same media stream. Although the same chain of hash
images will be reused and thus rendered ineffective the second time,
no real harm is done because the new SRTP session keys will be
derived in part from a cached shared secret, which was safely
protected from the MiTM in the previous DH exchange earlier in the
same session.

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10. Intermediary ZRTP Devices

This section discusses the operation of a ZRTP endpoint that is

actually an intermediary. For example, consider a device that
proxies both signaling and media between endpoints. There are three
possible ways in which such a device could support ZRTP.

An intermediary device can act transparently to the ZRTP protocol.

To do this, a device MUST pass non-RTP protocols multiplexed on the
same port as RTP (to allow ZRTP and STUN). This is the RECOMMENDED
behavior for intermediaries as ZRTP and SRTP are best when done end-
to-end.

An intermediary device could implement the ZRTP protocol and act as a

ZRTP endpoint on behalf of non-ZRTP endpoints behind the intermediary
device. The intermediary could determine on a call-by-call basis
whether the endpoint behind it supports ZRTP based on the presence or
absence of the ZRTP SDP attribute flag (a=zrtp-hash). For non-ZRTP
endpoints, the intermediary device could act as the ZRTP endpoint
using its own ZID and cache. This approach SHOULD only be used when
there is some other security method protecting the confidentiality of
the media between the intermediary and the inside endpoint, such as
IPsec or physical security.

The third mode, which is NOT RECOMMENDED, is for the intermediary

device to attempt to back-to-back the ZRTP protocol. The only
exception to this case is where the intermediary device is a trusted
element providing services to one of the endpoints -- e.g., a Private
Branch Exchange or PBX. In this mode, the intermediary would attempt
to act as a ZRTP endpoint towards both endpoints of the media
session. This approach MUST NOT be used except as described in
Section 7.3 as it will always result in a detected MiTM attack and
will generate alarms on both endpoints and likely result in the
immediate termination of the session. The PBX MUST uses a single ZID
for all endpoints behind it.

In cases where centralized media mixing is taking place, the SAS will
not match when compared by the humans. This situation can sometimes
be known in the SIP signaling by the presence of the isfocus feature
tag [RFC4579]. As a result, when the isfocus feature tag is present,
the DH exchange can be authenticated by the mechanism defined in
Section 8.1.1 or by validating signatures (Section 7.2) in the
Confirm or SASrelay messages. For example, consider an audio
conference call with three participants Alice, Bob, and Carol hosted
on a conference bridge in Dallas. There will be three ZRTP encrypted
media streams, one encrypted stream between each participant and
Dallas. Each will have a different SAS. Each participant will be
able to validate their SAS with the conference bridge by using

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signatures optionally present in the Confirm messages (described in

Section 7.2). Or, if the signaling path has end-to-end integrity
protection, each DH exchange will have automatic MiTM protection by
using the mechanism in Section 8.1.1.

SIP feature tags can also be used to detect if a session is

established with an automaton such as an Interactive Voice Response
(IVR), voicemail system, or speech recognition system. The display
of SAS strings to users should be disabled in these cases.

It is possible that an intermediary device acting as a ZRTP endpoint

might still receive ZRTP Hello and other messages from the inside
endpoint. This could occur if there is another inline ZRTP device
that does not include the ZRTP SDP attribute flag. An intermediary
acting as a ZRTP endpoint receiving ZRTP Hello and other messages
from the inside endpoint MUST NOT pass these ZRTP messages.

11. The ZRTP Disclosure Flag

There are no back doors defined in the ZRTP protocol specification.

The designers of ZRTP would like to discourage back doors in ZRTP-
enabled products. However, despite the lack of back doors in the
actual ZRTP protocol, it must be recognized that a ZRTP implementer
might still deliberately create a rogue ZRTP-enabled product that
implements a back door outside the scope of the ZRTP protocol. For
example, they could create a product that discloses the SRTP session
key generated using ZRTP out-of-band to a third party. They may even
have a legitimate business reason to do this for some customers.

For example, some environments have a need to monitor or record

calls, such as stock brokerage houses who want to discourage insider
trading, or special high-security environments with special needs to
monitor their own phone calls. We’ve all experienced automated
messages telling us that "This call may be monitored for quality
assurance". A ZRTP endpoint in such an environment might
unilaterally disclose the session key to someone monitoring the call.
ZRTP-enabled products that perform such out-of-band disclosures of
the session key can undermine public confidence in the ZRTP protocol,
unless we do everything we can in the protocol to alert the other
user that this is happening.

If one of the parties is using a product that is designed to disclose

their session key, ZRTP requires them to confess this fact to the
other party through a protocol message to the other party’s ZRTP
client, which can properly alert that user, perhaps by rendering it
in a graphical user interface. The disclosing party does this by
sending a Disclosure flag (D) in Confirm1 and Confirm2 messages as
described in Section 5.7.

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Note that the intention here is to have the Disclosure flag identify
products that are designed to disclose their session keys, not to
identify which particular calls are compromised on a call-by-call
basis. This is an important legal distinction, because most
government sanctioned wiretap regulations require a VoIP service
provider to not reveal which particular calls are wiretapped. But
there is nothing illegal about revealing that a product is designed
to be wiretap-friendly. The ZRTP protocol mandates that such a
product "out" itself.

You might be using a ZRTP-enabled product with no back doors, but if

your own graphical user interface tells you the call is (mostly)
secure, except that the other party is using a product that is
designed in such a way that it may have disclosed the session key for
monitoring purposes, you might ask him what brand of secure telephone
he is using, and make a mental note not to purchase that brand
yourself. If we create a protocol environment that requires such
back-doored phones to confess their nature, word will spread quickly,
and the "invisible hand" of the free market will act. The free
market has effectively dealt with this in the past.

Of course, a ZRTP implementer can lie about his product having a back
door, but the ZRTP standard mandates that ZRTP-compliant products
MUST adhere to the requirement that a back door be confessed by
sending the Disclosure flag to the other party.

There will be inevitable comparisons to Steve Bellovin’s 2003 April

fool joke, when he submitted RFC 3514 [RFC3514], which defined the
"Evil bit" in the IPv4 header, for packets with "evil intent". But
we submit that a similar idea can actually have some merit for
securing VoIP. Sure, one can always imagine that some implementer
will not be fazed by the rules and will lie, but they would have lied
anyway even without the Disclosure flag. There are good reasons to
believe that it will improve the overall percentage of
implementations that at least tell us if they put a back door in
their products, and may even get some of them to decide not to put in
a back door at all. From a civic hygiene perspective, we are better
off with having the Disclosure flag in the protocol.

If an endpoint stores or logs SRTP keys or information that can be

used to reconstruct or recover SRTP keys after they are no longer in
use (i.e., the session is active), or otherwise discloses or passes
SRTP keys or information that can be used to reconstruct or recover
SRTP keys to another application or device, the Disclosure flag D
MUST be set in the Confirm1 or Confirm2 message.

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11.1. Guidelines on Proper Implementation of the Disclosure Flag

Some implementers have asked for guidance on implementing the

Disclosure flag. Some people have incorrectly thought that a
connection secured with ZRTP cannot be used in a call center, with
voluntary voice recording, or even with a voicemail system.
Similarly, some potential users of ZRTP have over considered the
protection that ZRTP can give them. These guidelines clarify both
concerns.

The ZRTP Disclosure flag only governs the ZRTP/SRTP stream itself.
It does not govern the underlying RTP media stream, nor the actual
media itself. Consequently, a PBX that uses ZRTP may provide
conference calls, call monitoring, call recording, voicemail, or
other PBX features and still say that it does not disclose the ZRTP
key material. A video system may provide DVR features and still say
that it does not disclose the ZRTP key material. The ZRTP Disclosure
flag, when not set, means only that the ZRTP cryptographic key
material stays within the bounds of the ZRTP subsystem.

If an application has a need to disclose the ZRTP cryptographic key

material, the easiest way to comply with the protocol is to set the
flag to the proper value. The next easiest way is to overestimate
disclosure. For example, a call center that commonly records calls
might choose to set the Disclosure flag even though all recording is
an analog recording of a call (and thus outside the ZRTP scope)
because it sets an expectation with clients that their calls might be
recorded.

Note also that the ZRTP Disclosure Flag does not require an
implementation to preclude hacking or malware. Malware that leaks
ZRTP cryptographic key material does not create a liability for the
implementer from non-compliance with the ZRTP specification.

A user of ZRTP should note that ZRTP is not a panacea against

unauthorized recording. ZRTP does not and cannot protect against an
untrustworthy partner who holds a microphone up to the speaker. It
does not protect against someone else being in the room. It does not
protect against analog wiretaps in the phone or in the room. It does
not mean your partner has not been hacked with spyware. It does not
mean that the software has no flaws. It means that the ZRTP
subsystem is not knowingly leaking ZRTP cryptographic key material.

12. Mapping between ZID and AOR (SIP URI)

The role of the ZID in the management of the local cache of shared
secrets is explained in Section 4.9. A particular ZID is associated
with a particular ZRTP endpoint, typically a VoIP client. A single

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SIP URI (also known as an Address-of-Record, or AOR) may be hosted on

several different soft VoIP clients, desktop phones, and mobile
handsets, and each of them will have a different ZID. Further, a
single VoIP client may have several SIP URIs configured into its
profiles, but only one ZID. There is not a one-to-one mapping
between a ZID and a SIP URI. A single SIP URI may be associated with
several ZIDs, and a single ZID may be associated with several SIP
URIs on the same client.

Not only that, but ZRTP is independent of which signaling protocol is

used. It works equally well with SIP, Jingle, H.323, or any
proprietary signaling protocol. Thus, a ZRTP ZID has little to do
with SIP, per se, which means it has little to do with a SIP URI.

Even though a ZID is associated with a device, not a human, it is

often the case that a ZRTP endpoint is controlled mainly by a
particular human. For example, it may be a mobile phone. To get the
full benefit of the key continuity features, a local cache entry (and
thus a ZID) should be associated with some sort of name of the remote
party. That name could be a human name, or it could be made more
precise by specifying which ZRTP endpoint he’s using. For example
"Jon Callas", or "Jon Callas on his iPhone", or "Jon on his iPad", or
"Alice on her office phone". These name strings can be stored in the
local cache, indexed by ZID, and may have been initially provided by
the local user by hand. Or the local cache entry may contain a
pointer to an entry in the local address book. When a secure session
is established, if a prior session has established a cache entry, and
the new session has a matching cache entry indexed by the same ZID,
and the SAS has been previously verified, the person’s name stored in
that cache entry should be displayed.

If the remote ZID originates from a PBX, the displayed name would be
the name of that PBX, which might be the name of the company who owns
that PBX.

If it is desirable to associate some key material with a particular

AOR, digital signatures (Section 7.2) may be used, with public key
certificates that associate the signature key with an AOR. If more
than one ZRTP endpoint shares the same AOR, they may all use the same
signature key and provide the same public key certificate with their
signatures.

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13. IANA Considerations

This specification defines a new SDP [RFC4566] attribute in

Section 8.

Contact name: Philip Zimmermann <prz@mit.edu>

Attribute name: "zrtp-hash"

Type of attribute: Media level

Subject to charset: Not

Purpose of attribute: The ’zrtp-hash’ indicates that a UA supports

the ZRTP protocol and provides a hash of the
ZRTP Hello message. The ZRTP protocol
version number is also specified.

Allowed attribute values: Hex

14. Media Security Requirements

This section discuses how ZRTP meets all RTP security requirements
discussed in the Media Security Requirements [RFC5479] document
without any dependencies on other protocols or extensions, unlike
DTLS-SRTP [RFC5764] which requires additional protocols and
mechanisms.

R-FORK-RETARGET is met since ZRTP is a media path key agreement

protocol.

R-DISTINCT is met since ZRTP uses ZIDs and allows multiple

independent ZRTP exchanges to proceed.

R-HERFP is met since ZRTP is a media path key agreement protocol.

R-REUSE is met using the Multistream and Preshared modes.

R-AVOID-CLIPPING is met since ZRTP is a media path key agreement

protocol.

R-RTP-CHECK is met since the ZRTP packet format does not pass the
RTP validity check.

R-ASSOC is met using the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute in INVITEs and

responses (Section 8.1).

R-NEGOTIATE is met using the Commit message.

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R-PSTN is met since ZRTP can be implemented in Gateways.

R-PFS is met using ZRTP Diffie-Hellman key agreement methods.

R-COMPUTE is met using the Hello/Commit ZRTP exchange.

R-CERTS is met using the verbal comparison of the SAS.

R-FIPS is met since ZRTP uses only FIPS-approved algorithms in all

relevant categories. The authors believe ZRTP is compliant with
[NIST-SP800-56A], [NIST-SP800-108], [FIPS-198-1], [FIPS-180-3],
[NIST-SP800-38A], [FIPS-197], and [NSA-Suite-B], which should meet
the FIPS-140 validation requirements set by [FIPS-140-2-Annex-A]
and [FIPS-140-2-Annex-D].

R-DOS is met since ZRTP does not introduce any new denial-of-
service attacks.

R-EXISTING is met since ZRTP can support the use of certificates

or keys.

R-AGILITY is met since the set of hash, cipher, SRTP

authentication tag type, key agreement method, SAS type, and
signature type can all be extended and negotiated.

R-DOWNGRADE is met since ZRTP has protection against downgrade

attacks.

R-PASS-MEDIA is met since ZRTP prevents a passive adversary with

access to the media path from gaining access to keying material
used to protect SRTP media packets.

R-PASS-SIG is met since ZRTP prevents a passive adversary with

access to the signaling path from gaining access to keying
material used to protect SRTP media packets.

R-SIG-MEDIA is met using the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute in INVITEs

and responses.

R-ID-BINDING is met using the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute

(Section 8.1).

R-ACT-ACT is met using the a=zrtp-hash SDP attribute in INVITEs

and responses.

R-BEST-SECURE is met since ZRTP utilizes the RTP/AVP profile and

hence best effort SRTP in every case.

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R-OTHER-SIGNALING is met since ZRTP can utilize modes in which

there is no dependency on the signaling path.

R-RECORDING is met using the ZRTP Disclosure flag.

R-TRANSCODER is met if the transcoder operates as a trusted MitM

(i.e., a PBX).

R-ALLOW-RTP is met due to ZRTP’s best effort encryption.

15. Security Considerations

This document is all about securely keying SRTP sessions. As such,

security is discussed in every section.

Most secure phones rely on a Diffie-Hellman exchange to agree on a

common session key. But since DH is susceptible to a MiTM attack, it
is common practice to provide a way to authenticate the DH exchange.
In some military systems, this is done by depending on digital
signatures backed by a centrally managed PKI. A decade of industry
experience has shown that deploying centrally managed PKIs can be a
painful and often futile experience. PKIs are just too messy and
require too much activation energy to get them started. Setting up a
PKI requires somebody to run it, which is not practical for an
equipment provider. A service provider, like a carrier, might
venture down this path, but even then you have to deal with cross-
carrier authentication, certificate revocation lists, and other
complexities. It is much simpler to avoid PKIs altogether,
especially when developing secure commercial products. It is
therefore more common for commercial secure phones in the PSTN world
to augment the DH exchange with a Short Authentication String (SAS)
combined with a hash commitment at the start of the key exchange, to
shorten the length of SAS material that must be read aloud. No PKI
is required for this approach to authenticating the DH exchange. The
AT&T TSD 3600, Eric Blossom’s COMSEC secure phones [comsec],
[PGPfone], and the GSMK CryptoPhone are all examples of products that
took this simpler lightweight approach. The main problem with this
approach is inattentive users who may not execute the voice
authentication procedure.

Some questions have been raised about voice spoofing during the short
authentication string (SAS) comparison. But it is a mistake to think
this is simply an exercise in voice impersonation (perhaps this could
be called the "Rich Little" attack). Although there are digital
signal processing techniques for changing a person’s voice, that does
not mean a MiTM attacker can safely break into a phone conversation
and inject his own SAS at just the right moment. He doesn’t know
exactly when or in what manner the users will choose to read aloud

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the SAS, or in what context they will bring it up or say it, or even
which of the two speakers will say it, or if indeed they both will
say it. In addition, some methods of rendering the SAS involve using
a list of words such as the PGP word list[Juola2], in a manner
analogous to how pilots use the NATO phonetic alphabet to convey
information. This can make it even more complicated for the
attacker, because these words can be worked into the conversation in
unpredictable ways. If the session also includes video (an
increasingly common usage scenario), the MiTM may be further deterred
by the difficulty of making the lips sync with the voice-spoofed SAS.
The PGP word list is designed to make each word phonetically
distinct, which also tends to create distinctive lip movements.
Remember that the attacker places a very high value on not being
detected, and if he makes a mistake, he doesn’t get to do it over.

A question has been raised regarding the safety of the SAS procedure
for people who don’t know each other’s voices, because it may allow
an attack from a MiTM even if he lacks voice impersonation
capabilities. This is not as much of a problem as it seems, because
it isn’t necessary that users recognize each other by their voice.
It is only necessary that they detect that the voice used for the SAS
procedure doesn’t match the voice in the rest of the phone
conversation.

Special consideration must be given to secure phone calls with

automated systems that cannot perform a verbal SAS comparison between
two humans (e.g., a voice mail system). If a well-functioning PKI is
available to all parties, it is recommended that credentials be
provisioned at the automated system sufficient to use one of the
automatic MiTM detection mechanisms from Section 8.1.1 or
Section 7.2. Or rely on a previously established cached shared
secret (pbxsecret or rs1 or both), backed by a human-executed SAS
comparison during an initial call. Note that it is worse than
useless and absolutely unsafe to rely on a robot voice from the
remote endpoint to compare the SAS, because a robot voice can be
trivially forged by a MiTM. However, a robot voice may be safe to
use strictly locally for a different purpose. A ZRTP user agent may
render its locally computed SAS to the local user via a robot voice
if no visual display is available, provided the user can readily
determine that the robot voice is generated locally, not from the
remote endpoint.

A popular and field-proven approach to MiTM protection is used by SSH

(Secure Shell) [RFC4251], which Peter Gutmann likes to call the "baby
duck" security model. SSH establishes a relationship by exchanging
public keys in the initial session, when we assume no attacker is
present, and this makes it possible to authenticate all subsequent
sessions. A successful MiTM attacker has to have been present in all

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sessions all the way back to the first one, which is assumed to be
difficult for the attacker. ZRTP’s key continuity features are
actually better than SSH, at least for VoIP, for reasons described in
Section 15.1. All this is accomplished without resorting to a
centrally managed PKI.

We use an analogous baby duck security model to authenticate the DH

exchange in ZRTP. We don’t need to exchange persistent public keys,
we can simply cache a shared secret and re-use it to authenticate a
long series of DH exchanges for secure phone calls over a long period
of time. If we verbally compare just one SAS, and then cache a
shared secret for later calls to use for authentication, no new voice
authentication rituals need to be executed. We just have to remember
we did one already.

If one party ever loses this cached shared secret, it is no longer

available for authentication of DH exchanges. This cache mismatch
situation is easy to detect by the party that still has a surviving
shared secret cache entry. If it fails to match, either there is a
MiTM attack or one side has lost their shared secret cache entry.
The user agent that discovers the cache mismatch must alert the user
that a cache mismatch has been detected, and that he must do a verbal
comparison of the SAS to distinguish if the mismatch is because of a
MiTM attack or because of the other party losing her cache (normative
language is in Section 4.3.2). Voice confirmation is absolutely
essential in this situation. From that point on, the two parties
start over with a new cached shared secret. Then, they can go back
to omitting the voice authentication on later calls.

Precautions must be observed when using a trusted MiTM device such as

a trusted PBX, as described in Section 7.3. Make sure you really
trust that this PBX will never be compromised before establishing it
as a trusted MiTM, because it is in a position to wiretap calls for
any phone that trusts it. It is "licensed" to be in a position to
wiretap. You are safer to try to arrange the connection topology to
route the media directly between the two ZRTP peers, not through a
trusted PBX. Real end-to-end encryption is preferred.

The security of the SAS mechanism depends on the user verifying it

verbally with his peer at the other endpoint. There is some risk the
user will not be so diligent and may ignore the SAS. For a
discussion on how users become habituated to security warnings in the
PKI certificate world, see [Sunshine]. Part of the problems
discussed in that paper are from the habituation syndrome common to
most warning messages, and part of them are from the fact that users
simply don’t understand trust models. Fortunately, ZRTP doesn’t need
a trust model to use the SAS mechanism, so it’s easier for the user
to grasp the idea of comparing the SAS verbally with the other party;

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

it’s easier than understanding a trust model, at least. Also, the

verbal comparison of the SAS gets both users involved, and they will
notice a mismatch of the SAS. Also, the ZRTP user agent will know
when the SAS has been previously verified because of the SAS verified
flag (V) (Section 7.1), and only ask the user to verify it when
needed. After it has been verified once, the key continuity features
make it unnecessary to verify it again.

15.1. Self-Healing Key Continuity Feature

The key continuity features of ZRTP are analogous to those provided

by SSH (Secure Shell) [RFC4251], but they differ in one respect. SSH
caches public signature keys that never change, and uses a permanent
private signature key that must be guarded from disclosure. If
someone steals your SSH private signature key, they can impersonate
you in all future sessions and can mount a successful MiTM attack any
time they want.

ZRTP caches symmetric key material used to compute secret session

keys, and these values change with each session. If someone steals
your ZRTP shared secret cache, they only get one chance to mount a
MiTM attack, in the very next session. If they miss that chance, the
retained shared secret is refreshed with a new value, and the window
of vulnerability heals itself, which means they are locked out of any
future opportunities to mount a MiTM attack. This gives ZRTP a
"self-healing" feature if any cached key material is compromised.

A MiTM attacker must always be in the media path. This presents a

significant operational burden for the attacker in many VoIP usage
scenarios, because being in the media path for every call is often
harder than being in the signaling path. This will likely create
coverage gaps in the attacker’s opportunities to mount a MiTM attack.
ZRTP’s self-healing key continuity features are better than SSH at
exploiting any temporary gaps in MiTM attack opportunities. Thus,
ZRTP quickly recovers from any disclosure of cached key material.

In systems that use a persistent private signature key, such as SSH,

the stored signature key is usually protected from disclosure by
encryption that requires a user-supplied high-entropy passphrase.
This arrangement may be acceptable for a diligent user with a desktop
computer sitting in an office with a full ASCII keyboard. But it
would be prohibitively inconvenient and unsafe to type a high-entropy
passphrase on a mobile phone’s numeric keypad while driving a car.
Users will reject any scheme that requires the use of a passphrase on
such a platform, which means mobile phones carry an elevated risk of
compromise of stored key material, and thus would especially benefit
from the self-healing aspects of ZRTP’s key continuity features.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

The infamous Debian OpenSSL weak key vulnerability [dsa-1571]

(discovered and patched in May 2008) offers a real-world example of
why ZRTP’s self-healing scheme is a good way to do key continuity.
The Debian bug resulted in the production of a lot of weak SSH (and
TLS/SSL) keys, which continued to compromise security even after the
bug had been patched. In contrast, ZRTP’s key continuity scheme adds
new entropy to the cached key material with every call, so old
deficiencies in entropy are washed away with each new session.

It should be noted that the addition of shared secret entropy from

previous sessions can extend the strength of the new session key to
AES-256 levels, even if the new session uses Diffie-Hellman keys no
larger than DH-3072 or ECDH-256, provided the cached shared secrets
were initially established when the wiretapper was not present. This
is why AES-256 MAY be used with the smaller DH key sizes in
Section 5.1.5, despite the key strength comparisons in Table 2 of
[NIST-SP800-57-Part1].

Caching shared symmetric key material is also less CPU intensive

compared with using digital signatures, which may be important for
low-power mobile platforms.

Unlike the long-lived non-updated key material used by SSH, the

dynamically updated shared secrets of ZRTP may lose sync if
traditional backup/restore mechanisms are used. This limitation is a
consequence of the otherwise beneficial aspects of this approach to
key continuity, and it is partially mitigated by ZRTP’s built-in
cache backup logic (Section 4.6.1).

16. Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Bryce "Zooko" Wilcox-O’Hearn and

Colin Plumb for their contributions to the design of this protocol.
Also, thanks to Hal Finney, Viktor Krikun, Werner Dittmann, Dan Wing,
Sagar Pai, David McGrew, Colin Perkins, Dan Harkins, David Black, Tim
Polk, Richard Harris, Roni Even, Jon Peterson, and Robert Sparks for
their helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks to Lily Chen at NIST
for her assistance in ensuring compliance with NIST SP800-56A and
SP800-108.

The use of one-way hash chains to key HMACs in ZRTP is similar to

Adrian Perrig’s TESLA protocol [TESLA].

Zimmermann, et al. Informational [Page 108]

RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

17. References

17.1. Normative References

[RFC2104] Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC: Keyed-

Hashing for Message Authentication", RFC 2104,
February 1997.

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate

Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

[RFC3526] Kivinen, T. and M. Kojo, "More Modular Exponential (MODP)

Diffie-Hellman groups for Internet Key Exchange (IKE)",
RFC 3526, May 2003.

[RFC3550] Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V.

Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, July 2003.

[RFC3711] Baugher, M., McGrew, D., Naslund, M., Carrara, E., and K.
Norrman, "The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP)",
RFC 3711, March 2004.

[RFC4231] Nystrom, M., "Identifiers and Test Vectors for HMAC-SHA-

224, HMAC-SHA-256, HMAC-SHA-384, and HMAC-SHA-512",
RFC 4231, December 2005.

[RFC4566] Handley, M., Jacobson, V., and C. Perkins, "SDP: Session

Description Protocol", RFC 4566, July 2006.

[RFC4880] Callas, J., Donnerhacke, L., Finney, H., Shaw, D., and R.
Thayer, "OpenPGP Message Format", RFC 4880, November 2007.

[RFC4960] Stewart, R., "Stream Control Transmission Protocol",

RFC 4960, September 2007.

[RFC5114] Lepinski, M. and S. Kent, "Additional Diffie-Hellman

Groups for Use with IETF Standards", RFC 5114,
January 2008.

[RFC5479] Wing, D., Fries, S., Tschofenig, H., and F. Audet,

"Requirements and Analysis of Media Security Management
Protocols", RFC 5479, April 2009.

[RFC5759] Solinas, J. and L. Zieglar, "Suite B Certificate and

Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile", RFC 5759,
January 2010.

Zimmermann, et al. Informational [Page 109]

RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

[RFC6188] McGrew, D., "The Use of AES-192 and AES-256 in Secure

RTP", RFC 6188, March 2011.

[FIPS-140-2-Annex-A]
"Annex A: Approved Security Functions for FIPS PUB 140-2",
NIST FIPS PUB 140-2 Annex A, January 2011.

[FIPS-140-2-Annex-D]
"Annex D: Approved Key Establishment Techniques for FIPS
PUB 140-2", NIST FIPS PUB 140-2 Annex D, January 2011.

[FIPS-180-3]
"Secure Hash Standard (SHS)", NIST FIPS PUB 180-3, October
2008.

[FIPS-186-3]
"Digital Signature Standard (DSS)", NIST FIPS PUB 186-
3, June 2009.

[FIPS-197] "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)", NIST FIPS PUB

197, November 2001.

[FIPS-198-1]
"The Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC)", NIST
FIPS PUB 198-1, July 2008.

[NIST-SP800-38A]
Dworkin, M., "Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of
Operation", NIST Special Publication 800-38A, 2001
Edition.

[NIST-SP800-56A]
Barker, E., Johnson, D., and M. Smid, "Recommendation for
Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete
Logarithm Cryptography", NIST Special Publication 800-
56A Revision 1, March 2007.

[NIST-SP800-90]
Barker, E. and J. Kelsey, "Recommendation for Random
Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit
Generators", NIST Special Publication 800-90 (Revised),
March 2007.

[NIST-SP800-108]
Chen, L., "Recommendation for Key Derivation Using
Pseudorandom Functions", NIST Special Publication 800-
108, October 2009.

Zimmermann, et al. Informational [Page 110]

RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

[NSA-Suite-B]
"NSA Suite B Cryptography", NSA Information Assurance
Directorate, NSA Suite B Cryptography.

[NSA-Suite-B-Guide-56A]
"Suite B Implementer’s Guide to NIST SP 800-56A", Suite B
Implementer’s Guide to NIST SP 800-56A, 28 July 2009.

[TwoFish] Schneier, B., Kelsey, J., Whiting, D., Hall, C., and N.
Ferguson, "Twofish: A 128-Bit Block Cipher", June 1998,
<http://www.schneier.com/paper-twofish-paper.html>.

[Skein] Ferguson, N., Lucks, S., Schneier, B., Whiting, D.,

Bellare, M., Kohno, T., Callas, J., and J. Walker, "The
Skein Hash Function Family, Version 1.3 - 1 Oct 2010", <ht
tp://www.skein-hash.info/sites/default/files/
skein1.3.pdf>.

[pgpwordlist]
"PGP Word List", December 2010, <http://en.wikipedia.org/
w/index.php?title=PGP_word_list&oldid=400752943>.

17.2. Informative References

[RFC1191] Mogul, J. and S. Deering, "Path MTU discovery", RFC 1191,

November 1990.

[RFC1981] McCann, J., Deering, S., and J. Mogul, "Path MTU Discovery
for IP version 6", RFC 1981, August 1996.

[RFC3261] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston,

A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E.
Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261,
June 2002.

[RFC3514] Bellovin, S., "The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header",

RFC 3514, April 1 2003.

[RFC3824] Peterson, J., Liu, H., Yu, J., and B. Campbell, "Using
E.164 numbers with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)",
RFC 3824, June 2004.

[RFC4086] Eastlake, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker, "Randomness

Requirements for Security", BCP 106, RFC 4086, June 2005.

[RFC4251] Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, "The Secure Shell (SSH)

Protocol Architecture", RFC 4251, January 2006.

Zimmermann, et al. Informational [Page 111]

RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

[RFC4474] Peterson, J. and C. Jennings, "Enhancements for

Authenticated Identity Management in the Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP)", RFC 4474, August 2006.

[RFC4475] Sparks, R., Hawrylyshen, A., Johnston, A., Rosenberg, J.,

and H. Schulzrinne, "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
Torture Test Messages", RFC 4475, May 2006.

[RFC4567] Arkko, J., Lindholm, F., Naslund, M., Norrman, K., and E.
Carrara, "Key Management Extensions for Session
Description Protocol (SDP) and Real Time Streaming
Protocol (RTSP)", RFC 4567, July 2006.

[RFC4568] Andreasen, F., Baugher, M., and D. Wing, "Session

Description Protocol (SDP) Security Descriptions for Media
Streams", RFC 4568, July 2006.

[RFC4579] Johnston, A. and O. Levin, "Session Initiation Protocol

(SIP) Call Control - Conferencing for User Agents",
BCP 119, RFC 4579, August 2006.

[RFC5117] Westerlund, M. and S. Wenger, "RTP Topologies", RFC 5117,

January 2008.

[RFC5245] Rosenberg, J., "Interactive Connectivity Establishment

(ICE): A Protocol for Network Address Translator (NAT)
Traversal for Offer/Answer Protocols", RFC 5245,
April 2010.

[RFC5764] McGrew, D. and E. Rescorla, "Datagram Transport Layer

Security (DTLS) Extension to Establish Keys for the Secure
Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP)", RFC 5764, May 2010.

[RFC5869] Krawczyk, H. and P. Eronen, "HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand

Key Derivation Function (HKDF)", RFC 5869, May 2010.

[RFC6090] McGrew, D., Igoe, K., and M. Salter, "Fundamental Elliptic

Curve Cryptography Algorithms", RFC 6090, February 2011.

[SRTP-AES-GCM]
McGrew, D., "AES-GCM and AES-CCM Authenticated Encryption
in Secure RTP (SRTP)", Work in Progress, January 2011.

[ECC-OpenPGP]
Jivsov, A., "ECC in OpenPGP", Work in Progress,
March 2011.

Zimmermann, et al. Informational [Page 112]

RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

[VBR-AUDIO]
Perkins, C. and J. Valin, "Guidelines for the use of
Variable Bit Rate Audio with Secure RTP", Work
in Progress, December 2010.

[SIP-IDENTITY]
Wing, D. and H. Kaplan, "SIP Identity using Media Path",
Work in Progress, February 2008.

[NIST-SP800-57-Part1]
Barker, E., Barker, W., Burr, W., Polk, W., and M. Smid,
"Recommendation for Key Management - Part 1: General
(Revised)", NIST Special Publication 800-57 - Part
1 Revised March 2007.

[NIST-SP800-131A]
Barker, E. and A. Roginsky, "Recommendation for the
Transitioning of Cryptographic Algorithms and Key
Lengths", NIST Special Publication 800-131A January 2011.

[SHA-3] "Cryptographic Hash Algorithm Competition", NIST Computer

Security Resource Center Cryptographic Hash Project.

[Skein1] "The Skein Hash Function Family - Web site",

<http://www.skein-hash.info/>.

[XEP-0262] Saint-Andre, P., "Use of ZRTP in Jingle RTP Sessions", XSF

XEP 0262, August 2010.

[Ferguson] Ferguson, N. and B. Schneier, "Practical Cryptography",

Wiley Publishing, 2003.

[Juola1] Juola, P. and P. Zimmermann, "Whole-Word Phonetic

Distances and the PGPfone Alphabet", Proceedings of the
International Conference of Spoken Language Processing
(ICSLP-96), 1996.

[Juola2] Juola, P., "Isolated Word Confusion Metrics and the

PGPfone Alphabet", Proceedings of New Methods in Language
Processing, 1996.

[PGPfone] Zimmermann, P., "PGPfone", July 1996,

<http://philzimmermann.com/docs/pgpfone10b7.pdf>.

[Zfone] Zimmermann, P., "Zfone Project", 2006,

<http://www.philzimmermann.com/zfone>.

Zimmermann, et al. Informational [Page 113]

RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

[Byzantine]
"The Two Generals’ Problem", March 2011, <http://
en.wikipedia.org/w/
index.php?title=Two_Generals%27_Problem&oldid=417855753>.

[TESLA] Perrig, A., Canetti, R., Tygar, J., and D. Song, "The
TESLA Broadcast Authentication Protocol", October 2002, <h
ttp://www.ece.cmu.edu/~adrian/projects/tesla-cryptobytes/
tesla-cryptobytes.pdf>.

[comsec] Blossom, E., "The VP1 Protocol for Voice Privacy Devices
Version 1.2", <http://www.comsec.com/vp1-protocol.pdf>.

[Wright1] Wright, C., Ballard, L., Coull, S., Monrose, F., and G.
Masson, "Spot me if you can: Uncovering spoken phrases in
encrypted VoIP conversations", Proceedings of the 2008
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2008,
<http://cs.jhu.edu/~cwright/oakland08.pdf>.

[Sunshine] Sunshine, J., Egelman, S., Almuhimedi, H., Atri, N., and
L. Cranor, "Crying Wolf: An Empirical Study of SSL Warning
Effectiveness", USENIX Security Symposium 2009,
<http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/sslwarnings.pdf>.

[dsa-1571] "Debian Security Advisory - OpenSSL predictable random

number generator", May 2008,
<http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1571>.

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RFC 6189 ZRTP April 2011

Authors’ Addresses

Philip Zimmermann
Zfone Project
Santa Cruz, California

EMail: prz@mit.edu
URI: http://philzimmermann.com

Alan Johnston (editor)

Avaya
St. Louis, MO 63124

EMail: alan.b.johnston@gmail.com

Jon Callas
Apple, Inc.

EMail: jon@callas.org

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