Generalized hash-binary-tree based self-healing key distribution with implicit authentication

Abstract

We propose a self-healing key distribution scheme with implicit authentication following a hash-binary-tree based key distribution scheme. The scheme reduces storage overhead without increase of communication and computation overhead. Implication authentication is subtly introduced to detect tam- per attack against broadcast messages during transmission. The scheme achieves the same security level with Dutta et al's approach which is an improved version of one of our schemes. The security of the proposed scheme is analyzed under an security model. Keywords-Self-healing key distribution, hash-binary-tree, vector space secret sharing; I. INTRODUCTION WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks) have gained wide applications ranging from civilian to military use, where net- work infrastructure is usually not available and adversaries may launch different kinds of attacks. WSNs are prone to all kinds of attacks thus security becomes the first concern. In order to keep communication secure, sensitive data should be encrypted and authenticated. Therefore, key distribution, which is a prerequisite of encryption and authentication, should be addressed carefully. WSNs are not reliable networks, and hence the broadcast of key distribution for a particular session might never reach some users. Requiring retransmissions would contribute to the traffic on the network which might already be heavily burdened. Especially, when network scale is large, such re-transmissions could potentially exhaust the group man- ager. In addition, in some high security environments, it is suggested that only sending essential messages lest they make themselves vulnerable by revealing their location. Self- healing key distribution schemes enable large and dynamic groups of users over an unreliable network to establish group keys for secure communication over an unreliable channel in the manner that is resistant to packet loss. Hence, self- healing key distribution solutions are not only favorable but also necessary. Our contribution in this paper are two-fold. Firstly, we propose an HBT (hash binary tree) based self-healing key distribution scheme following approach of (1). The scheme