Efficient path key establishment for wireless sensor networks

Key predistribution schemes have been proposed as means to overcome wireless sensor network constraints such as limited communication and processing power. Two sensor nodes can establish a secure link with some probability based on the information stored in their memories, though it is not always possible that two sensor nodes may set up a secure link. In this paper, we propose a new approach that elects trusted common nodes called “Proxies” which reside on an existing secure path linking two sensor nodes. These sensor nodes are used to send the generated key which will be divided into parts (nuggets) according to the number of elected proxies. Our approach has been assessed against previously developed algorithms, and the results show that our algorithm discovers proxies more quickly which are closer to both end nodes, thus producing shorter path lengths. We have also assessed the impact of our algorithm on the average time to establish a secure link when the transmitter and receiver of the sensor nodes are “ON.” The results show the superiority of our algorithm in this regard. Overall, the proposed algorithm is well suited for wireless sensor networks

A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield. Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios. Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Multiple Bridge Secret Delivery in Wireless Sensor Networks

Achieving security in wireless sensor networks is a challenging problem due to the inherent resource and computing constraints. Several key distribution techniques have been proposed in the technical literature for efficient distribution of keys to the nodes prior deployment. These techniques establish secure links for some pairs of physically connected nodes but leave other pairs alone. Remaining nodes use multi-hop scheme to form a secured path connecting these links. Using this technique, the secret is disclosed to all the nodes on the path. Therefore, if any of the nodes is compromised by an adversary, secret is disclosed to the adversary. To solve this problem, a scheme called Babel was proposed recently that finds common bridge node to deliver secret link keys to their neighbors. In this scheme regular paths are used to deliver multiple keys with the common bridge node, hence key compromise probability is lowered compared to previous techniques. Our work is based on the Babel scheme and has several advantages. In our work we propose a new scheme that finds multiple bridge nodes to deliver secret link keys to all its physical neighbors. Keys are distributed to multiple bridge nodes instead of one common bridge node to establish secure connections to the disconnected nodes. Hence even if a few of the bridge nodes are compromised, secret will not be disclosed to the adversary. We present the details of our scheme's design and investigate the connectivity and security performance of our scheme in this thesis

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