SECURING WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS FROM NODE CLONE ATTACK: A LIGHTWEIGHT MESSAGE AUTHENTICATION ALGORITHM

Abstract

Message communication in WSNs is not secure because energy-starving networks are vulnerable to numerous security attacks mainly due to their nature of distribution and unprotected communication. Securing communication in these networks not only needs to provide the elementary security but also needs resistance against countless attacks. Message authentication and integrity is a serious concern for sensor networks security, therefore, sensor network must assure the distribution of authentic message without any amendment or alteration. To solve these problems, a lightweight message authentication algorithm is proposed for securing message communication in WSNs. The algorithm uses Mod and XOR operations to compute fixed size hash value or message digest. The scheme is robust as a slight change in the message will affect the hash value extensively. The comparative analysis of the proposed algorithm is done with authentication algorithms available in the literature with the help of various metrics. Results show that the proposed message authentication algorithm is energy efficient and secure against node replication attacks. Also, proposed algorithm have 48.75 µJ communications overhead, 4.416 µJ of computational overhead and 3 bytes of storage overheads that is very less as compared to other algorithms present in the literature.