According to one embodiment, techniques are provided to enable secure communication among devices in a mesh network using a group temporal key. An authenticator device associated with a mesh network stores a pairwise master key for each of a plurality of devices in a mesh network upon authentication of the respective devices. Using the pairwise master key, the authenticator device initiates a handshake procedure with a particular device in the mesh network to mutually derive a pairwise temporal key from the pairwise master key. The authenticator device encrypts and signs a group temporal key using the pairwise temporal key for the particular device and sends the group temporal key encrypted and signed with the pairwise temporal key to the particular device.