ROLIG3A: Protecting Group Secret Key Generation Procedures against Malicious Attackers

Abstract

Physical layer secret key (PLSK) attracts much research interest in recent years due to its lightweight properties and potential to be used in real internet-of-things (IoT) applications. However, most existing works focus on PLSK generation between pairwise users under passive eavesdropping and lack of design for group key generation especially when active attacks may exist. In this paper, the RObust and LIghtweight Group key generation Against Active Attack (ROLIG3A) scheme is proposed to achieve reliable, efficient, and secure group secret key generation (GSKG) against various malicious attack patterns. In ROLIG3A, adaptive channel listening and dual code channel transmission are designed to avoid legitimate users from jamming signals. Comparing with the exiting GSKG schemes, more proactive countermeasures, back interference cancellation, and ECC-based information sharing are involved to realize the identification and cancellation of malicious attacks. Simulation results show that ROLIG3A has better security performance than the state-of-the-art GSKG schemes in the face of both sabotage attacks and manipulative attacks. In addition, ROLIG3A can provide an acceptable key generation rate and it is reliable even in low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) environments.