Cryptanalysis on Privacy-Aware Two-factor Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Das first proposed two-factor authentication combining the smart card and password to resolve the security problems of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). After that, various researchers studied two-factor authentication suitable for WSNs. In user authentication protocols based on the symmetric key approach, a number of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)-based authentication protocols have been proposed. To resolve the security and efficiency problems of ECC-based two-factor authentication protocols, Jiang et al. proposed a privacy-aware two-factor authentication protocol based on ECC for WSNs. However, this paper performs a vulnerability analysis on Jiang et al.’s authentication protocol and shows that it has security problems, such as a lack of mutual authentication, a risk of SID modification and DoS attacks, a lack of sensor anonymity, and weak ID anonymity

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 Secured Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography

User authentication is a crucial service in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that is becoming increasingly common in WSNs because wireless sensor nodes are typically deployed in an unattended environment, leaving them open to possible hostile network attack. Because wireless sensor nodes are limited in computing power, data storage and communication capabilities, any user authentication protocol must be designed to operate efficiently in a resource constrained environment. In this paper, we review several proposed WSN user authentication protocols, with a detailed review of the M.L Das protocol and a cryptanalysis of Das’ protocol that shows several security weaknesses. Furthermore, this paper proposes an ECC-based user authentication protocol that resolves these weaknesses. According to our analysis of security of the ECC-based protocol, it is suitable for applications with higher security requirements. Finally, we present a comparison of security, computation, and communication costs and performances for the proposed protocols. The ECC-based protocol is shown to be suitable for higher security WSNs

On the Security of `An Efficient Biometric Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks\u27

In 2013, Althobaiti et al. proposed an efficient biometric-based user authentication scheme for wireless sensor networks. We analyze their scheme for the security against known attacks. Though their scheme is efficient in computation, in this paper we show that their scheme has some security pitfalls such as (1) it is not resilient against node capture attack, (2) it is insecure against impersonation attack and (3) it is insecure against man-in-the-middle attack. Finally, we give some pointers for improving their scheme so that the designed scheme needs to be secure against various known attacks

RUASN: A Robust User Authentication Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been considered as a potential solution for real-time monitoring applications and these WSNs have potential practical impact on next generation technology too. However, WSNs could become a threat if suitable security is not considered before the deployment and if there are any loopholes in their security, which might open the door for an attacker and hence, endanger the application. User authentication is one of the most important security services to protect WSN data access from unauthorized users; it should provide both mutual authentication and session key establishment services. This paper proposes a robust user authentication framework for wireless sensor networks, based on a two-factor (password and smart card) concept. This scheme facilitates many services to the users such as user anonymity, mutual authentication, secure session key establishment and it allows users to choose/update their password regularly, whenever needed. Furthermore, we have provided the formal verification using Rubin logic and compare RUASN with many existing schemes. As a result, we found that the proposed scheme possesses many advantages against popular attacks, and achieves better efficiency at low computation cost

Secure Chaotic Map Based Block Cryptosystem with Application to Camera Sensor Networks

Recently, Wang et al. presented an efficient logistic map based block encryption system. The encryption system employs feedback ciphertext to achieve plaintext dependence of sub-keys. Unfortunately, we discovered that their scheme is unable to withstand key stream attack. To improve its security, this paper proposes a novel chaotic map based block cryptosystem. At the same time, a secure architecture for camera sensor network is constructed. The network comprises a set of inexpensive camera sensors to capture the images, a sink node equipped with sufficient computation and storage capabilities and a data processing server. The transmission security between the sink node and the server is gained by utilizing the improved cipher. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results indicate that the improved algorithm can overcome the flaws and maintain all the merits of the original cryptosystem. In addition, computational costs and efficiency of the proposed scheme are encouraging for the practical implementation in the real environment as well as camera sensor network

Prospectiva de seguridad de las redes de sensores inalámbricos

En las Redes de Sensores Inalámbricos (WSN), los nodos son vulnerables a los ataques de seguridad porque están instalados en un entorno difícil, con energía y memoria limitadas, baja capacidad de procesamiento y transmisión de difusión media; por lo tanto, identificar las amenazas, los retos y las soluciones de seguridad y privacidad es un tema candente hoy en día. En este artículo se analizan los trabajos de investigación que se han realizado sobre los mecanismos de seguridad para la protección de las WSN frente a amenazas y ataques, así como las tendencias que surgen en otros países junto con futuras líneas de investigación. Desde el punto de vista metodológico, este análisis se muestra a través de la visualización y estudio de trabajos indexados en bases de datos como IEEE, ACM, Scopus y Springer, con un rango de 7 años como ventana de observación, desde 2013 hasta 2019. Se obtuvieron un total de 4.728 publicaciones, con un alto índice de colaboración entre China e India. La investigación planteó desarrollos, como avances en los principios de seguridad y mecanismos de defensa, que han llevado al diseño de contramedidas en la detección de intrusiones. Por último, los resultados muestran el interés de la comunidad científica y empresarial por el uso de la inteligencia artificial y el aprendizaje automático (ML) para optimizar las medidas de rendimiento.In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), nodes are vulnerable to security attacks because they are installed in a harsh environment with limited power and memory, low processing power, and medium broadcast transmission. Therefore, identifying threats, challenges, and solutions of security and privacy is a talking topic today. This article analyzes the research work that has been carried out on the security mechanisms for the protection of WSN against threats and attacks, as well as the trends that emerge in other countries combined with future research lines. From the methodological point of view, this analysis is shown through the visualization and study of works indexed in databases such as IEEE, ACM, Scopus, and Springer, with a range of 7 years as an observation window, from 2013 to 2019. A total of 4,728 publications were obtained, with a high rate of collaboration between China and India. The research raised developments, such as advances in security principles and defense mechanisms, which have led to the design of countermeasures in intrusion detection. Finally, the results show the interest of the scientific and business community in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) to optimize performance measurements

LDAKM-EIoT: Lightweight Device Authentication and Key Management Mechanism for Edge-Based IoT Deployment

In recent years, edge computing has emerged as a new concept in the computing paradigm that empowers several future technologies, such as 5G, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and the Internet of Things (IoT), by providing cloud computing facilities, as well as services to the end users. However, open communication among the entities in an edge based IoT environment makes it vulnerable to various potential attacks that are executed by an adversary. Device authentication is one of the prominent techniques in security that permits an IoT device to authenticate mutually with a cloud server with the help of an edge node. If authentication is successful, they establish a session key between them for secure communication. To achieve this goal, a novel device authentication and key management mechanism for the edge based IoT environment, called the lightweight authentication and key management scheme for the edge based IoT environment (LDAKM-EIoT), was designed. The detailed security analysis and formal security verification conducted by the widely used Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool prove that the proposed LDAKM-EIoT is secure against several attack vectors that exist in the infrastructure of the edge based IoT environment. The elaborated comparative analysis of the proposed LDAKM-EIoT and different closely related schemes provides evidence that LDAKM-EIoT is more secure with less communication and computation costs. Finally, the network performance parameters are calculated and analyzed using the NS2 simulation to demonstrate the practical facets of the proposed LDAKM-EIoT