ON THE DISTRIBUTED REVOCATION OF NODES IN SENSOR NETWORKS

Revocation in sensor networks is a challenging problem because asymmetric key cryptosystems are unsuitable for use in resource constrained sensor nodes. We present some properties of node revocation in distributed sensor networks (DSN) and explain their implementation challenges. We illustrate these challenges by analyzing prior work in centralized and distributed revocation schemes for DSNs. We present a distributed revocation scheme for DSNs based on voting, that provides revocation vote authenticity, improved resilience to node replication, and well- defined policies for revocation. We also present the correctness properties of our scheme and prove its robustness in the context of the various problems identified in distributed revocation. Further, we explain why tracking the degree of connectivity of sensor nodes in a DSN is a complex problem and identify its role in solving the distributed revocation problem

KALwEN+: Practical Key Management Schemes for Gossip-Based Wireless Medical Sensor Networks

The constrained resources of sensors restrict the design of a key management scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this work, we first formalize the security model of ALwEN, which is a gossip-based wireless medical sensor network (WMSN) for ambient assisted living. Our security model considers the node capture, the gossip-based network and the revocation problems, which should be valuable for ALwEN-like applications. Based on Shamir's secret sharing technique, we then propose two key management schemes for ALwEN, namely the KALwEN+ schemes, which are proven with the security properties defined in the security model. The KALwEN+ schemes not only fit ALwEN, but also can be tailored to other scalable wireless sensor networks based on gossiping

Implementation of Fuzzy Based Simulation for Clone Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are usually left unattended and serve hostile environment, therefore can easily be compromised. With compromised nodes an attacker can conduct several inside and outside attacks. Node replication attack is one of them which can cause severe damage to wireless sensor network if left undetected. This paper presents fuzzy based simulation framework for detection and revocation of compromised nodes in wireless sensor network. Our proposed scheme uses PDR statistics and neighbor reports to determine the probability of a cluster being compromised. Nodes in compromised cluster are then revoked and software attestation is performed.Simulation is carried out on MATLAB 2010a and performance of proposed scheme is compared with conventional algorithms on the basis of communication and storage overhead. Simulation results show that proposed scheme require less communication and storage overhead than conventional algorithms

Data-centric Misbehavior Detection in VANETs

Detecting misbehavior (such as transmissions of false information) in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is very important problem with wide range of implications including safety related and congestion avoidance applications. We discuss several limitations of existing misbehavior detection schemes (MDS) designed for VANETs. Most MDS are concerned with detection of malicious nodes. In most situations, vehicles would send wrong information because of selfish reasons of their owners, e.g. for gaining access to a particular lane. Because of this (\emph{rational behavior}), it is more important to detect false information than to identify misbehaving nodes. We introduce the concept of data-centric misbehavior detection and propose algorithms which detect false alert messages and misbehaving nodes by observing their actions after sending out the alert messages. With the data-centric MDS, each node can independently decide whether an information received is correct or false. The decision is based on the consistency of recent messages and new alert with reported and estimated vehicle positions. No voting or majority decisions is needed, making our MDS resilient to Sybil attacks. Instead of revoking all the secret credentials of misbehaving nodes, as done in most schemes, we impose fines on misbehaving nodes (administered by the certification authority), discouraging them to act selfishly. This reduces the computation and communication costs involved in revoking all the secret credentials of misbehaving nodes.Comment: 12 page

Key Management Building Blocks for Wireless Sensor Networks

Cryptography is the means to ensure data confidentiality, integrity and authentication in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). To use cryptography effectively however, the cryptographic keys need to be managed properly. First of all, the necessary keys need to be distributed to the nodes before the nodes are deployed in the field, in such a way that any two or more nodes that need to communicate securely can establish a session key. Then, the session keys need to be refreshed from time to time to prevent birthday attacks. Finally, in case any of the nodes is found to be compromised, the key ring of the compromised node needs to be revoked and some or all of the compromised keys might need to be replaced. These processes, together with the policies and techniques needed to support them, are called key management. The facts that WSNs (1) are generally not tamper-resistant; (2) operate unattended; (3) communicate in an open medium; (4) have no fixed infrastructure and pre-configured topology; (5) have severe hardware and resource constraints, present unique challenges to key management. In this article, we explore techniques for meeting these challenges. What distinguishes our approach from a routine literature survey is that, instead of comparing various known schemes, we set out to identify the basic cryptographic principles, or building blocks that will allow practitioners to set up their own key management framework using these building blocks

A distributed scheme to detect wormhole attacks in mobile wireless sensor networks

Due to mostly being unattended, sensor nodes become open to physical attacks such as wormhole attack, which is our focus in this paper. Various solutions are proposed for wormhole attacks in sensor networks, but only a few of them take mobility of sensor nodes into account. We propose a distributed wormhole detection scheme for mobile wireless sensor networks in which mobility of sensor nodes is utilized to estimate two network features (i.e. network node density, standard deviation in network node density) through using neighboring information in a local manner. Wormhole attack is detected via observing anomalies in the neighbor nodes’ behaviors based on the estimated network features and the neighboring information. We analyze the performance of proposed scheme via simulations. The results show that our scheme achieves a detection rate up to 100% with very small false positive rate (at most 1.5%) if the system parameters are chosen accordingly. Moreover, our solution requires neither additional hardware nor tight clock synchronization which are both costly for sensor networks

A Survey of Access Control Models in Wireless Sensor Networks

Copyright 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted considerable interest in the research community, because of their wide range of applications. However, due to the distributed nature of WSNs and their deployment in remote areas, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their proper functioning. Resource constraints in sensor nodes mean that security mechanisms with a large overhead of computation and communication are impractical to use in WSNs; security in sensor networks is, therefore, a challenge. Access control is a critical security service that offers the appropriate access privileges to legitimate users and prevents illegitimate users from unauthorized access. However, access control has not received much attention in the context of WSNs. This paper provides an overview of security threats and attacks, outlines the security requirements and presents a state-of-the-art survey on access control models, including a comparison and evaluation based on their characteristics in WSNs. Potential challenging issues for access control schemes in WSNs are also discussed.Peer reviewe