Self-Certified Public Key Cryptographic Methodologies for Resource-Constrained Wireless Sensor Networks

As sensor networks become one of the key technologies to realize ubiquitous computing, security remains a growing concern. Although a wealth of key-generation methods have been developed during the past few decades, they cannot be directly applied to sensor network environments. The resource-constrained characteristics of sensor nodes, the ad-hoc nature of their deployment, and the vulnerability of wireless media pose a need for unique solutions. A fundamental requisite for achieving security is the ability to provide for data con…dential- ity and node authentication. However, the scarce resources of sensor networks have rendered the direct applicability of existing public key cryptography (PKC) methodologies impractical. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) has emerged as a suitable public key cryptographic foun- dation for constrained environments, providing strong security for relatively small key sizes. This work focuses on the clear need for resilient security solutions in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) by introducing e¢ cient PKC methodologies, explicitly designed to accommodate the distinctive attributes of resource-constrained sensor networks. Primary contributions pertain to the introduction of light-weight cryptographic arithmetic operations, and the revision of self- certi…cation (consolidated authentication and key-generation). Moreover, a low-delay group key generation methodology is devised and a denial of service mitigation scheme is introduced. The light-weight cryptographic methods developed pertain to a system-level e¢ cient utilization of the Montgomery procedure and e¢ cient calculations of modular multiplicative inverses. With respect to the latter, computational complexity has been reduced from O(m) to O(logm), with little additional memory cost. Complementing the theoretical contributions, practical computation o¤-loading protocols have been developed along with a group key establishment scheme. Implementation on state-of- the-art sensor node platforms has yielded a comprehensive key establishment process obtained in approximately 50 ns, while consuming less than 25 mJ. These exciting results help demonstrate the technology developed and ensure its impact on next-generation sensor networks

Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey

This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols, user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed, use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are some text overlaps with the previous submissio

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

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

A Light-Weight Group Signature Scheme for Wireless Networks Based-on BBS Short Group Signature

In the natural context of wireless network environment, the communications between wireless nodes are more easily observed for the goal of the network traffic analysis. Thus, to enable a secure and anonymous communication system from thwarting of such analysis attacks would be strongly desirable. In this paper, we propose a secure and anonymous communication system using pairing-based group signatures. The achievement of secure and anonymous communication is performed by allowing all valid member wireless nodes of a particular privilege group to authenticate each other without revealing their own identitie