Security and key management in IoT‐based wireless sensor networks: An authentication protocol using symmetric key

• Published in: International journal of communication systems Vol. 32; no. 16
• Main Authors: Ghani, Anwar, Mansoor, Khwaja, Mehmood, Shahid, Chaudhry, Shehzad Ashraf, Rahman, Arif Ur, Najmus Saqib, Malik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 10-11-2019
• Subjects: authentication protocol; Computer simulation; Denial of service attacks; Internet of Things; IoT; key agreement; Protocol; Protocol (computers); Radio equipment; Remote sensors; Sensors; symmetric encryption; Wireless sensor networks; WSN
• ISSN: 1074-5351; 1099-1131
• DOI: 10.1002/dac.4139

Summary
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) consist of hundreds of miniature sensor nodes to sense various events in the surrounding environment and report back to the base station. Sensor networks are at the base of internet of things (IoT) and smart computing applications where a function is performed as a result of sensed event or information. However, in resource‐limited WSN authenticating a remote user is a vital security concern. Recently, researchers put forth various authentication protocols to address different security issues. Gope et al presented a protocol claiming resistance against known attacks. A thorough analysis of their protocol shows that it is vulnerable to user traceability, stolen verifier, and denial of service (DoS) attacks. In this article, an enhanced symmetric key‐based authentication protocol for IoT‐based WSN has been presented. The proposed protocol has the ability to counter user traceability, stolen verifier, and DoS attacks. Furthermore, the proposed protocol has been simulated and verified using Proverif and BAN logic. The proposed protocol has the same communication cost as the baseline protocol; however, in computation cost, it has 52.63% efficiency as compared with the baseline protocol.
This article cryptanalyzed the Gope et al protocol and found that their protocol is vulnerable to user traceability, stolen verifier, and denial of service (DoS) attacks. Furthermore, an improved protocol has been designed that counters all known attacks including user traceability, stolen verifier, and DoS attacks, and it is computationally and communicationally efficient in comparison with Gope et al and other related protocols.