Benchmarking Block Ciphers for Wireless Sensor Networks

Choosing the most storage- and energy-efficient block cipher specifically for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is not as straightforward as it seems. To our knowledge so far, there is no systematic evaluation framework for the purpose. We have identified the candidates of block ciphers suitable for WSNs based on existing literature. For evaluating and assessing these candidates, we have devised a systematic framework that not only considers the security properties but also the storage- and energy-efficency of the candidates. Finally, based on the evaluation results, we have selected the suitable ciphers for WSNs, namely Rijndael for high security and energy efficiency requirements; and MISTY1 for good storage and energy efficiency

Survey and Benchmark of Block Ciphers for Wireless Sensor Networks

Cryptographic algorithms play an important role in the security architecture of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Choosing the most storage- and energy-efficient block cipher is essential, due to the facts that these networks are meant to operate without human intervention for a long period of time with little energy supply, and that available storage is scarce on these sensor nodes. However, to our knowledge, no systematic work has been done in this area so far.We construct an evaluation framework in which we first identify the candidates of block ciphers suitable for WSNs, based on existing literature and authoritative recommendations. For evaluating and assessing these candidates, we not only consider the security properties but also the storage- and energy-efficiency of the candidates. Finally, based on the evaluation results, we select the most suitable ciphers for WSNs, namely Skipjack, MISTY1, and Rijndael, depending on the combination of available memory and required security (energy efficiency being implicit). In terms of operation mode, we recommend Output Feedback Mode for pairwise links but Cipher Block Chaining for group communications

Secure and authenticated data communication in wireless sensor networks

© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Securing communications in wireless sensor networks is increasingly important as the diversity of applications increases. However, even today, it is equally important for the measures employed to be energy efficient. For this reason, this publication analyzes the suitability of various cryptographic primitives for use in WSNs according to various criteria and, finally, describes a modular, PKI-based framework for confidential, authenticated, secure communications in which most suitable primitives can be employed. Due to the limited capabilities of common WSN motes, criteria for the selection of primitives are security, power efficiency and memory requirements. The implementation of the framework and the singular components have been tested and benchmarked in our tested of IRISmotes

A Survey of ARX-based Symmetric-key Primitives

Addition Rotation XOR is suitable for fast implementation symmetric –key primitives, such as stream and block ciphers. This paper presents a review of several block and stream ciphers based on ARX construction followed by the discussion on the security analysis of symmetric key primitives where the best attack for every cipher was carried out. We benchmark the implementation on software and hardware according to the evaluation metrics. Therefore, this paper aims at providing a reference for a better selection of ARX design strategy

Triathlon of Lightweight Block Ciphers for the Internet of Things

In this paper, we introduce a framework for the benchmarking of lightweight block ciphers on a multitude of embedded platforms. Our framework is able to evaluate the execution time, RAM footprint, as well as binary code size, and allows one to define a custom "figure of merit" according to which all evaluated candidates can be ranked. We used the framework to benchmark implementations of 19 lightweight ciphers, namely AES, Chaskey, Fantomas, HIGHT, LBlock, LEA, LED, Piccolo, PRESENT, PRIDE, PRINCE, RC5, RECTANGLE, RoadRunneR, Robin, Simon, SPARX, Speck, and TWINE, on three microcontroller platforms: 8-bit AVR, 16-bit MSP430, and 32-bit ARM. Our results bring some new insights into the question of how well these lightweight ciphers are suited to secure the Internet of things. The benchmarking framework provides cipher designers with an easy-to-use tool to compare new algorithms with the state of the art and allows standardization organizations to conduct a fair and consistent evaluation of a large number of candidates

Implementation of the SCREAM Tweakable Block Cipher in MSP430 Assembly Language

The encryption mode of the Tweakable Block Cipher (TBC) of the SCREAM Authenticated Cipher is implemented in the MSP430 microcontroller. Assembly language versions of the TBC are prepared using both precomputed tweak keys and tweak keys computed “on-the-fly.” Both versions are compared against published results for the assembly language version of SCREAM on the ATMEL AVR microcontroller, and against the C reference implementation in terms of performance and size. The assembly language version using precomputed tweak keys achieves a speedup of 1.7 and memory savings of 9 percent over the reported SCREAM implementation in the ATMEL AVR. The assembly language version using tweak keys computed “on-the-fly” achieves a speedup of 1.6 over the ATMEL AVR version while reducing memory usage by 15 percent

Técnicas de segurança para a internet das coisas

Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e TelemáticaIoT assume que dispositivos limitados, tanto em capacidades computacionais como em energia disponível, façam parte da sua infraestrutura. Dispositivos esses que apresentam menos capacidades e mecanismos de defesa do que as máquinas de uso geral. É imperativo aplicar segurança nesses dispositivos e nas suas comunicações de maneira a prepará-los para as ameaças da Internet e alcançar uma verdadeira e segura Internet das Coisas, em concordância com as visões atuais para o futuro. Esta dissertação pretende ser um pequeno passo nesse sentido, apresentando alternativas para proteger as comunicações de dispositivos restritos numa perspetiva de performance assim como avaliar o desempenho e a ocupação de recursos por parte de primitivas criptográficas quando são aplicadas em dispositivos reais. Dado que a segurança em diversas ocasiões tem de se sujeitar aos recursos deixados após a implementação de funcionalidades, foi colocada uma implementação de exposição de funcionalidades, recorrendo ao uso de CoAP, num dispositivo fabricado com intenção de ser usado em IoT e avaliada de acordo com a sua ocupação de recursos.IoT comprehends devices constrained in both computational capabilities and available energy to be a part of its infrastructure. Devices which also present less defense capabilities and mechanisms than general purpose machines. It’s imperative to secure such devices and their communications in order to prepare them for the Internet menaces and achieve a true and secure Internet of Things compliant with today’s future visions. This dissertation intends to be a small step towards such future by presenting alternatives to protect constrained device’s communications in a performance related perspective as well as benchmarks and evaluation of resources used by cryptographic primitives when implemented on real devices. Due to security being on multiple occasions subjected to the resources available only after functionalities implementation, a minimalist implementation of functionalities exposure through the use of CoAP was also deployed in an IoT intended device and assessed according to resource overhead

Performance Evaluation of Cryptographic Algorithms over IoT Platforms and Operating Systems

The deployment of security services over Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and IoT devices brings significant processing and energy consumption overheads. These overheads are mainly determined by algorithmic efficiency, quality of implementation, and operating system. Benchmarks of symmetric primitives exist in the literature for WSN platforms but they are mostly focused on single platforms or single operating systems. Moreover, they are not up to date with respect to implementations and/or operating systems versions which had significant progress. Herein, we provide time and energy benchmarks of reference implementations for different platforms and operating systems and analyze their impact. Moreover, we not only give the first benchmark results of symmetric cryptography for the Intel Edison IoT platform but also describe a methodology of how to measure energy consumption on that platform