Efficient key management in wireless sensor network security

Wireless sensor network is a multi-hop ad hoc network formed by a large number of low-cost micro-sensor nodes which communicate through radio channels. It is widely used in many areas in modern society and attracts a lot of attention from researchers. This research is on wireless sensor network security and it focuses on key management in hierarchical wireless sensor networks. Through literature review, the drawback and weakness of existing key management schemes are analyzed from various aspects including key establishment, key distribution, key update, authentication and node operation mechanism. Assessment criteria for key management scheme are proposed under different requirements and constraints of wireless sensor networks. The security criteria cover keying model, key distribution, key update, node operation and resilience. For cluster based hierarchical wireless sensor networks, an assistant node is introduced in a cluster to deal with the situation of cluster head compromise and to keep the member nodes securely staying in the network. With introduction of assistant nodes, a complete secure efficient hierarchical key management scheme (SEHKM) for wireless sensor network is proposed. The scheme supports three types of keys and the big improvement over existing key management schemes is on group key update, which is based on pseudo-random numbers and group Diffie-Hellman. The analysis and evaluation have shown that that SEHKM offers strong security with efficient operation from energy consumption point of view

A Key Management Protocol for Multiphase Hierarchical Wireless Sensor Networks

The security of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has a direct reliance on secure and efficient key management. This leaves key management as a fundamental research topic in the field of WSNs security. Among the proposed key management schemes for WSNs security, LEAP (Localized Encryption and Authentication Protocol) has been regarded as an efficient protocol over the last years. LEAP supports the establishment of four types of keys. The security of these keys is under the assumption that the initial deployment phase is secure and the initial key is erased from sensor nodes after the initialization phase. However, the initial key is used again for node addition after the initialization phase whereas the new node can be compromised before erasing the key. A time-based key management scheme rethought the security of LEAP. We show the deficiency of the time-based key management scheme and proposed a key management scheme for multi-phase WSNs in this paper. The proposed scheme disperses the damage resulting from the disclosure of the initial key. We show it has better resilience and higher key connectivity probability through the analysis

Intrusion Prevention and Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

The broadcast nature of the transmission medium in wireless sensor networks makes information more vulnerable than in wired applications. In this dissertation we first propose a distributed, deterministic key management protocol designed to satisfy authentication and confidentiality, without the need of a key distribution center. Next we propose Scatter, a secure code authentication scheme for efficient reprogramming sensor networks. Scatter avoids the use of Elliptic Key Cryptography and manages to surpass all previous attempts for secure code dissemination in terms of energy consumption and time efficiency. Next we introduce the problem of intrusion detection in sensor networks. We define the problem formally based on a generic system model and we prove a necessary and sufficient condition for successful detection of the attacker. Finally we present the architecture and implementation of an intrusion detection system which is based on a distributed architecture and it is lightweight enough to run on the nodes

Security in heterogeneous wireless networks

The proliferation of a range of wireless devices, from the cheap low power resource starved sensor nodes to the ubiquitous cell phones and PDA\u27s has resulted in their use in many applications. Due to their inherent broadcast nature Security and Privacy in wireless networks is harder than the wired networks. Along with the traditional security requirements like confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation new requirements like privacy and anonymity are important in wireless networks. These factors combined with the fact that nodes in a wireless network may have different resource availabilities and trust levels makes security in wireless networks extremely challenging. The functional lifetime of sensor networks in general is longer than the operational lifetime of a single node, due to limited battery power. Therefore to keep the network working multiple deployments of sensor nodes are needed. In this thesis, we analyze the vulnerability of the existing key predistribution schemes arising out of the repeated use of fixed key information through multiple deployments. We also develop SCON, an approach for key management that provides a significant improvement in security using multiple key pools. SCON performs better in a heterogeneous environment. We present a key distribution scheme that allows mobile sensor nodes to connect with stationary nodes of several networks. We develop a key distribution scheme for a semi ad-hoc network of cell phones. This scheme ensures that cell phones are able to communicate securely with each other when the phones are unable to connect to the base station. It is different from the traditional ad hoc networks because the phones were part of a centralized network before the base station ceased to work. This allows efficient distribution of key material making the existing schemes for ad hoc networks ineffective. In this thesis we present a mechanism for implementing authenticated broadcasts which ensure non-repudiation using identity based cryptography. We also develop a reputation based mechanism for the distributed detection and revocation of malicious cell phones. Schemes which use the cell phone for secure spatial authentication have also been presented

A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield. Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios. Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Key Management Scheme for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are infrastructure-less and resource constraint networks composed of many sensor nodes. These sensors collect information from the area of sense and deliver that information to the base station. WSNs are usually deployed in unattended environment and like other networks need to be secured. In order to secure WSNs, firstly cryptography keys must be distributed in a secure and robust way. Key management problem is rapidly studied in the static WSNs, but it has not been studied thoroughly in mobile (or dynamic) WSNs. When mobility is introduced within WSNs, many challenges and new characteristics appear in the security model. Security requirements for mobile WSNs include authentication, confidentiality, and integrity. The key management scheme represents the corner stone for achieving security services. In this paper, we propose a key management scheme for mobile WSNs which based on track-sector clustering in the roaming area. The proposed system is relying on symmetric cryptography for achieving its goals. The paper represents a work-in-progress report on our advance in the development of this proposal

An Outline of Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Threats, Countermeasures and Implementations

With the expansion of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the need for securing the data flow through these networks is increasing. These sensor networks allow for easy-to-apply and flexible installations which have enabled them to be used for numerous applications. Due to these properties, they face distinct information security threats. Security of the data flowing through across networks provides the researchers with an interesting and intriguing potential for research. Design of these networks to ensure the protection of data faces the constraints of limited power and processing resources. We provide the basics of wireless sensor network security to help the researchers and engineers in better understanding of this applications field. In this chapter, we will provide the basics of information security with special emphasis on WSNs. The chapter will also give an overview of the information security requirements in these networks. Threats to the security of data in WSNs and some of their counter measures are also presented

An Authentication Protocol for Future Sensor Networks

Authentication is one of the essential security services in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for ensuring secure data sessions. Sensor node authentication ensures the confidentiality and validity of data collected by the sensor node, whereas user authentication guarantees that only legitimate users can access the sensor data. In a mobile WSN, sensor and user nodes move across the network and exchange data with multiple nodes, thus experiencing the authentication process multiple times. The integration of WSNs with Internet of Things (IoT) brings forth a new kind of WSN architecture along with stricter security requirements; for instance, a sensor node or a user node may need to establish multiple concurrent secure data sessions. With concurrent data sessions, the frequency of the re-authentication process increases in proportion to the number of concurrent connections, which makes the security issue even more challenging. The currently available authentication protocols were designed for the autonomous WSN and do not account for the above requirements. In this paper, we present a novel, lightweight and efficient key exchange and authentication protocol suite called the Secure Mobile Sensor Network (SMSN) Authentication Protocol. In the SMSN a mobile node goes through an initial authentication procedure and receives a re-authentication ticket from the base station. Later a mobile node can use this re-authentication ticket when establishing multiple data exchange sessions and/or when moving across the network. This scheme reduces the communication and computational complexity of the authentication process. We proved the strength of our protocol with rigorous security analysis and simulated the SMSN and previously proposed schemes in an automated protocol verifier tool. Finally, we compared the computational complexity and communication cost against well-known authentication protocols.Comment: This article is accepted for the publication in "Sensors" journal. 29 pages, 15 figure

The Meeting of Acquaintances: A Cost-efficient Authentication Scheme for Light-weight Objects with Transient Trust Level and Plurality Approach

Wireless sensor networks consist of a large number of distributed sensor nodes so that potential risks are becoming more and more unpredictable. The new entrants pose the potential risks when they move into the secure zone. To build a door wall that provides safe and secured for the system, many recent research works applied the initial authentication process. However, the majority of the previous articles only focused on the Central Authority (CA) since this leads to an increase in the computation cost and energy consumption for the specific cases on the Internet of Things (IoT). Hence, in this article, we will lessen the importance of these third parties through proposing an enhanced authentication mechanism that includes key management and evaluation based on the past interactions to assist the objects joining a secured area without any nearby CA. We refer to a mobility dataset from CRAWDAD collected at the University Politehnica of Bucharest and rebuild into a new random dataset larger than the old one. The new one is an input for a simulated authenticating algorithm to observe the communication cost and resource usage of devices. Our proposal helps the authenticating flexible, being strict with unknown devices into the secured zone. The threshold of maximum friends can modify based on the optimization of the symmetric-key algorithm to diminish communication costs (our experimental results compare to previous schemes less than 2000 bits) and raise flexibility in resource-constrained environments.Comment: 27 page