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

A Formal Analysis of 5G Authentication

Mobile communication networks connect much of the world's population. The security of users' calls, SMSs, and mobile data depends on the guarantees provided by the Authenticated Key Exchange protocols used. For the next-generation network (5G), the 3GPP group has standardized the 5G AKA protocol for this purpose. We provide the first comprehensive formal model of a protocol from the AKA family: 5G AKA. We also extract precise requirements from the 3GPP standards defining 5G and we identify missing security goals. Using the security protocol verification tool Tamarin, we conduct a full, systematic, security evaluation of the model with respect to the 5G security goals. Our automated analysis identifies the minimal security assumptions required for each security goal and we find that some critical security goals are not met, except under additional assumptions missing from the standard. Finally, we make explicit recommendations with provably secure fixes for the attacks and weaknesses we found.Comment: Categories (ACM class 2012): Security and privacy - Formal methods and theory of security -- Security requirements -- Formal security models -- Logic and verification; Network protocols - Protocol correctness -- Formal specifications; Security and privacy - Network security -- Mobile and wireless security - Security services -- Privacy-preserving protocol

Patrol Detection for Replica Attacks on Wireless Sensor Networks

Replica attack is a critical concern in the security of wireless sensor networks. We employ mobile nodes as patrollers to detect replicas distributed in different zones in a network, in which a basic patrol detection protocol and two detection algorithms for stationary and mobile modes are presented. Then we perform security analysis to discuss the defense strategies against the possible attacks on the proposed detection protocol. Moreover, we show the advantages of the proposed protocol by discussing and comparing the communication cost and detection probability with some existing methods

Detailed specifications of a security architecture for OLSR

In Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), mobile nodes use wireless devices to create spontaneously a larger network, larger than the one hop radio range, in which communication with each other is made possible by the means of routing. The goal of this document is the study of security issue related to integrity of an ad hoc network. We only consider ad hoc networks using the OLSR routing protocol. In a previous research report we have carried out a theoretical analysis of this issue. In this document we aim at precising a detailed security using the OLSR routing protocol. We also validate this This security architecture at the CELAR

Quantifying pervasive authentication: the case of the Hancke-Kuhn protocol

As mobile devices pervade physical space, the familiar authentication patterns are becoming insufficient: besides entity authentication, many applications require, e.g., location authentication. Many interesting protocols have been proposed and implemented to provide such strengthened forms of authentication, but there are very few proofs that such protocols satisfy the required security properties. The logical formalisms, devised for reasoning about security protocols on standard computer networks, turn out to be difficult to adapt for reasoning about hybrid protocols, used in pervasive and heterogenous networks. We refine the Dolev-Yao-style algebraic method for protocol analysis by a probabilistic model of guessing, needed to analyze protocols that mix weak cryptography with physical properties of nonstandard communication channels. Applying this model, we provide a precise security proof for a proximity authentication protocol, due to Hancke and Kuhn, that uses a subtle form of probabilistic reasoning to achieve its goals.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures; short version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of MFPS 201

Security Analysis of the Consumer Remote SIM Provisioning Protocol

Remote SIM provisioning (RSP) for consumer devices is the protocol specified by the GSM Association for downloading SIM profiles into a secure element in a mobile device. The process is commonly known as eSIM, and it is expected to replace removable SIM cards. The security of the protocol is critical because the profile includes the credentials with which the mobile device will authenticate to the mobile network. In this paper, we present a formal security analysis of the consumer RSP protocol. We model the multi-party protocol in applied pi calculus, define formal security goals, and verify them in ProVerif. The analysis shows that the consumer RSP protocol protects against a network adversary when all the intended participants are honest. However, we also model the protocol in realistic partial compromise scenarios where the adversary controls a legitimate participant or communication channel. The security failures in the partial compromise scenarios reveal weaknesses in the protocol design. The most important observation is that the security of RSP depends unnecessarily on it being encapsulated in a TLS tunnel. Also, the lack of pre-established identifiers means that a compromised download server anywhere in the world or a compromised secure element can be used for attacks against RSP between honest participants. Additionally, the lack of reliable methods for verifying user intent can lead to serious security failures. Based on the findings, we recommend practical improvements to RSP implementations, to future versions of the specification, and to mobile operator processes to increase the robustness of eSIM security.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, Associated ProVerif model files located at https://github.com/peltona/rsp_mode

BVPSMS: A Batch Verification Protocol for End-to-End Secure SMS for Mobile Users

Short Message Service (SMS) is a widely used communication medium for mobile applications, such as banking, social networking, and e-commerce. Applications of SMS services also include real-time broadcasting messages, such as notification of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, and sharing the current whereabouts to other users, such as notifying urgent business meeting information, transmitting quick information in the battlefield to multiple users, notifying current location to our friends, and sharing market information. However, traditional SMS is not designed with security in mind (e.g. messages are not securely sent). In this paper, we introduce a batch verification Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocol, BVPSMS, which provides end-to-end message security over an insecure communication channel between different Mobile Subscribers (MSs). Specifically, the proposed protocol securely transmits SMS from one MS to multiple MS simultaneously. We then evaluate the performance of the BVPSMS protocol in terms of communication and computation overheads, protocol execution time, and batch and re-batch verification times. The impacts of the user mobility, and the time, space, and cost complexity analysis are also discussed. We present a formal proof of the proposed protocol. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first provably-secure batch verification AKA protocol, which provides end-to-end security to the SMS using symmetric keys