Abstract. Key authentication is very important in secret communications and data security. Recently, Lee, Hwang and Li proposed a new public key authentication scheme for cryptosystems with a trusty server. However, in this paper, we will show that Lee-Hwang-Li's key authentication scheme is not secure, from the obtained public information, any one can get the private key of the user. And then, we propose an improved scheme. We conclude that our new key authentication scheme not only resolves the problems appeared but also is secure. Key words: Key authentication scheme, Cryptanalysis, Certificate, Password.