Cryptographic Key Distribution In Wireless Sensor Networks Using Bilinear Pairings

It is envisaged that the use of cheap and tiny wireless sensors will soon bring a third wave of evolution in computing systems. Billions of wireless senor nodes will provide a bridge between information systems and the physical world. Wireless nodes deployed around the globe will monitor the surrounding environment as well as gather information about the people therein. It is clear that this revolution will put security solutions to a great test. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a challenging environment for applying security services. They differ in many aspects from traditional fixed networks, and standard cryptographic solutions cannot be used in this application space. Despite many research efforts, key distribution in WSNs still remains an open problem. Many of the proposed schemes suffer from high communication overhead and storage costs, low scalability and poor resilience against different types of attacks. The exclusive usage of simple and energy efficient symmetric cryptography primitives does not solve the security problem. On the other hand a full public key infrastructure which uses asymmetric techniques, digital signatures and certificate authorities seems to be far too complex for a constrained WSN environment. This thesis investigates a new approach to WSN security which addresses many of the shortcomings of existing mechanisms. It presents a detailed description on how to provide practical Public Key Cryptography solutions for wireless sensor networks. The contributions to the state-of-the-art are added on all levels of development beginning with the basic arithmetic operations and finishing with complete security protocols. This work includes a survey of different key distribution protocols that have been developed for WSNs, with an evaluation of their limitations. It also proposes Identity- Based Cryptography (IBC) as an ideal technique for key distribution in sensor networks. It presents the first in-depth study of the application and implementation of Pairing- Based Cryptography (PBC) to WSNs. This is followed by a presentation of the state of the art on the software implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) on typical WSNplatforms. New optimized algorithms for performing multiprecision multiplication on a broad range of low-end CPUs are introduced as well. Three novel protocols for key distribution are proposed in this thesis. Two of these are intended for non-interactive key exchange in flat and clustered networks respectively. A third key distribution protocol uses Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) to secure communication within a heterogeneous sensor network. This thesis includes also a comprehensive security evaluation that shows that proposed schemes are resistant to various attacks that are specific to WSNs. This work shows that by using the newest achievements in cryptography like pairings and IBC it is possible to deliver affordable public-key cryptographic solutions and to apply a sufficient level of security for the most demanding WSN applications

Cryptographic key distribuition in sensor networks

Orientador: Ricardo DahabTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Redes de Sensores Sem Fio (RSSFs) são compostas em sua maioria por pequenos nós sensores dotados de recursos extremamente limitados. Estes, por sua vez, se comunicam com o mundo externo através de nós poderosos chamados de sorvedouros ou estações rádio base. RSSFs são empregadas com o objetivo de monitorar regiões, oferecendo dados sobre a área monitorada para o resto do sistema. Tais redes podem ser utilizadas para diferentes aplicações, tais como operações de resgate em áreas de conflito/desastre, espionagem industrial e detecção de exploração ilegal de recursos naturais. Em RSSFs existem aplicações críticas nas quais propriedades de segurança são de vital importância. Segurança, por sua vez, é comumente alavancada através de esquemas de distribuição de chaves. A maioria dos padrões de distribuição de chaves presentes na literatura, todavia, não são apropriados para RSSFs: métodos baseados em esquemas de chave pública convencionais, devido aos seus requisitos de processamento e banda; chaves de grupo, em função das suas vulnerabilidades de segurança; e chaves par-a-par (pairwise), por causa da baixa escalabilidade. Um outro dado é que há uma vasta gama de arquiteturas propostas para RSSFs e que uma mesma técnica de distribuição de chaves pode ser a melhor para uma, mas não para outra, visto que diferentes arquiteturas de rede exibem padrões de comunicação distintos. Em outras palavras, não existe uma panacéia, e mecanismos de distribuição de chaves para RSSFs devem, portanto, levar em consideração as idiossincrasias das arquiteturas para as quais são projetadas. Tudo isso torna extremamente difícil e desafiadora a tarefa de dotar RSSFs de segurança. O objetivo deste trabalho foi propor soluções de distribuição de chaves que, concomitantemente, (i) fossem compatíveis com os recursos dos sensores e (ii) considerassem as particularidades das arquiteturas para as quais são propostas. Como será mostrado ao longo desta tese, iniciamos nosso trabalho com soluções personalizadas para certas arquiteturas de RSSFs e evoluímos para soluções flexíveis em que a segurança é alavancada de forma não interativa - o que é ideal para este tipo de rede. Até onde sabemos, nosso trabalho é pioneiro em soluções de segurança para RSSFs hierárquicas e em distribuição de chaves de forma autenticada e não interativa, usando Criptografia Baseada em Identidade, neste tipo de rede.Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are ad hoc networks comprised mainly of small sensor nodes with limited resources and one or more base stations, which are much more powerful laptop-class nodes that connect the sensor nodes to the rest of the world. WSNs are used for monitoring purposes, providing information about the area being monitored to the rest of the system. Application areas range from battlefield reconnaissance and emergency rescue operations to surveillance and environmental protection. There are also critical WSN applications in which security properties are of paramount importance. Security, in turn, is frequently bootstrapped through key distribution schemes. Most of the key distribution techniques, however, are ill-suited to WSNs: public key based distribution, because of its processing and bandwidth requirements; global keying, because of its security vulnerabilities; complete pairwise keying, because of its memory requirements. It is worth noting, however, that a large number of WSN architectures have been proposed and a key distribution solution that is well suited to one architecture is likely not to be the best for another, as different network architectures exhibit different communication patterns. In other words, there is no panacea and the design of a key distribution scheme must therefore be driven by the peculiarities of the WSN architecture in question. This all makes extremely hard and challenging the objective of securing WSNs. In this work, we aimed at proposing key distribution schemes that are both (i) lightweight and (ii) able to fulfill architecture-specific needs. As it will be shown throughout this thesis, we began our work with customized solutions for certain types of WSNs and then, subsequently, turned our attention to more flexible solutions, where security is bootstrapped in a non-interactive way through the use of Identity-Based Cryptography.DoutoradoTeoria da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã