Pairwise Keys Research Articles

KDSR

This article deals with a key distribution protocol to secure routing in large-scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and proposes a new protocol called KDSR. The authors' protocol has two originalities: to provide a secure network structure for large-scale WSNs, and to use lightweight local process to share efficiently the Local Broadcast Keys, the Pairwise Keys and the Global Broadcast Key. These keys are useful to secure several communication patterns in WSNs: one-to-many, one-to-one and one-to-all. Security analyses show that KDSR can withstand several attacks against WSNs. Through fast node revocation process, KDSR offers a good resilience against node capture. Immunity against MiM and replay attacks are well checked with the AVISPA tools. The experimentations are done on real TelosB motes and through the TOSSIM simulator. Simulation results confirm that KDSR is scalable, provides a good key connectivity and a good resilience. Comparison to earlier work shows that KDSR causes less computation complexity, less communication overhead and much less storage space even for large-scale WSNs.

Performance Evaluation of Polynomial Pool-Based Key Pre-Distribution Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

In nowadays, wireless sensor network (WSN) has been established as a leading emerging technology in the field of remote area distributed sensing due to its diverse application areas. Key pre-distribution is an important task in WSN because after the deployment of sensor nodes, their neighbors become strange to each other. To secure the communication, neighbor nodes have to generate a secret shared key, or a key-path must exist between these nodes. In this paper, we have discussed and presented various key pre-distribution protocols, namely, the polynomial pool-based key pre-distribution which is a scheme for creating pairwise keys between sensors on the foundation of a polynomial-based key pre-distribution protocol, introducing two effective instantiations: a random subset assignment key pre-distribution scheme and a grid-based key pre-distribution scheme. Other studied key pre-distribution schemes (KPDS) are Peer Intermediaries Key for Establishment (PIKE) and Group-based key pre-distribution scheme. The performances of these schemes have been assessed through the simulation of different grids under the TinyOS environment.

SFAD2H: Selective Forwarding or Dropping Attack Detection with 2-Hop Acknowledgment Support in Wireless Sensor Networks

Security in wireless sensor networks is critical due to its way of open communication. In this study we have proposed a technique based on a sensor node having alternate path knowledge and 2-hop acknowledgement mechanism to detect adversary nodes which perform selective forwarding and dropping attacks. In selective forwarding attack nodes on the forwarding path refuses to transfer packets selectively. The proposed approach starts with network initialization where every node decides the list of parent nodes through which Sink can be reached with equal distance. Each node chooses a parent node among selected parents to forward the data and establishes pairwise keys with 2-hop parent nodes. During data forwarding, child forwards the packet to 1-hop distance parent, handles acknowledgement from 2-hop distance node and decides the number of packets forwarded and dropped based on successful and unsuccessful transactions. Every node sends a transaction report containing observations on the parent via alternate path to Sink at a particular interval of time called an evaluation period. Sink identifies the malicious node by comparing report received from each node with number of data packets received. Simulated the algorithm in NS-3 and performance analysis compared with other recently proposed approach. Simulation results show that proposed method detects the malicious nodes efficiently and early.

Fast Hierarchical Key Management Scheme With Transitory Master Key for Wireless Sensor Networks

Symmetric encryption is the most widely adopted security solution for wireless sensor networks. The main open issue in this context is represented by the establishment of symmetric keys. Although many key management schemes have been proposed in order to guarantee a high security level, a solution without weaknesses does not yet exist. An important class of key management schemes is based on a transitory master key (MK). In this approach, a global secret is used during the initialization phase to generate pair-wise keys, and it is deleted during the working phase. However, if an adversary compromises a node before the deletion of the MK, the security of the whole network is compromised. In this paper, a new key negotiation routine is proposed. The new routine is integrated with a well-known key computation mechanism based on a transitory master secret. The goal of the proposed approach is to reduce the time required for the initialization phase, thus reducing the probability that the master secret is compromised. This goal is achieved by splitting the initialization phase in hierarchical subphases with an increasing level of security. An experimental analysis demonstrates that the proposed scheme provides a significant reduction in the time required before deleting the transitory secret material, thus increasing the overall security level. Moreover, the proposed scheme allows to add new nodes after the first deployment with a suited routine able to complete the key establishment in the same time as for the initial deployment.

(t, n) Multi-Secret Sharing Scheme Based on Bivariate Polynomial

In a (t, n) secret sharing scheme (SS), a dealer divides the secret into n shares in such way that any t or more than t shares can reconstruct the secret but fewer than t shares cannot reconstruct the secret. The multi-SS is an extension of the (t, n) SS in which shares can be reused to reconstruct multiple secrets. Thus, the efficiency of the multi-SS is better than the efficiency of the (t, n) SS. In this paper, we propose the first multi-SS using a bivariate polynomial. Our design is unique in comparing with all existing multi-SSs. Shares generated using a bivariate polynomial can not only be used to reconstruct multiple secrets but also be used to establish pairwise keys between any pair of shareholders. The pairwise keys can protect exchange information in the secret reconstruction to prevent outsiders from obtaining the recovered secrets. All existing multi-SSs require additional key establishment to accomplish this.

A Hybrid Key Establishment Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

To establish pairwise keys for each pair of neighboring sensor nodes is a basic service, forming the basis other security services, such as authentication and encrypted in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, due to constrained energy, memory, and computational capabilities of sensor nodes to establish the pairwise key is challenging task. Here, a combination of polynomial pool-based and the probabilistic key predistribution scheme for WSN is presented. In the proposed scheme part of sensor nodes are pre-loaded polynomial shares, and the polynomial shares are used to compute the keys which make up a key pool. And the rest of sensor nodes are preloaded the keys selected from this key pool. The proposed scheme is analyzed based on connectivity, resistance against attacks, memory consumption and communication overhead. And the simulation results show that the proposed scheme performs better in terms of network resilience to node capture compared to the existing schemes.

A Polynomial-based Pairwise Key Pre-distribution and Node Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Continuous advances in the areas of sensor networks have made wireless sensor networks (WSNs) attractive for wide variety of applications, with vastly varying requirements and characteristics. As data sensed by nodes usually contains sensitive information, adherence to data protection requirements is vital in WSNs. This paper introduces a new robust key pre-distribution key management scheme using random polynomial functions and a matrix. The proposed mechanism significantly increases storage efficiency and enhances network resilience against node capture. The effectiveness of the mechanism is demonstrated by security analysis and a comparison to existing schemes.

A Combinational Approach Using Matrix Based Pairwise Key Establishment and Post Deployment Approach in Wireless Sensor Networks

A Combinational Approach Using Matrix Based Pairwise Key Establishment and Post Deployment Approach in Wireless Sensor Networks

Application of Modulo Key-Predistribution Protocol

The aim of the study is to analyze the application of the Modulo Key Pre-Distribution (MKPD) protocol which is developed for Wireless sensor network (WSN). WSN is a collection of a large number of sensor nodes with limited resources. Bootstrapping secure communication among sensor nodes deployed in hostile environment is an important and challenging problem. An adversary may physically capture some sensors to compromise their stored sensitive data and secret keys which are used to attain confidentiality of the sensitive data. A common approach to solve problem is to use a key pre-distribution scheme in which each sensor node is assigned a subset of keys (key chain), selected from key pool prior to deployment. The keys are carefully selected that have high key sharing probability and resistance against node capture. We use deterministic key distribution scheme based on modulo function to establish the pair-wise keys among the sensor nodes. This study focuses on the application of this Modulo Key Pre-Distribution (MKPD) protocol to a group communication. It provides good key connectivity between the sensor nodes belongs to that group. And also opportunity available to increase the scalability in MKPD protocol by complementary design is also explained.

A lightweight key management scheme for wireless sensor networks

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in any real-world application requires a certain level of security. To provide security of operations such as message exchange, key management schemes have to be well adapted to the particularities of WSNs. This paper proposes a novel key management scheme called SKM for sequence-based key management in WSNs. In SKM, sensor nodes are pre-distributed with the first term and the recursive formula of a numerical sequence. This two tiny pre-distributed information will ensure the establishment of pairwise keys to each sensor node with its neighbors after its deployment with a small amount of computation. The security analysis of SKM shows its efficiency. Simulation results confirm that SKM is lightweight in term of node's resources and has a good resilience against node compromising attacks compared to the main existing schemes.

Modified access polynomial based self-healing key management schemes with broadcast authentication and enhanced collusion resistance in wireless sensor networks

Though lots of research results about self-healing key management under unreliable links have been proposed, there are still some shortcomings, such as the inefficiency of broadcasts, lack of broadcast authentication, limited sessions for key issues, disastrous risks of access polynomials, and the vulnerability of collusion attacks. In this paper, we propose two modified access polynomial based self-healing key management schemes with broadcast authentication and enhanced collusion resistance. First, two kinds of attacks are introduced to break the security of access polynomials. Then, a modified security model is given, and collusion resistance capability is redefined from the perspective of session interval from node revocation to node addition, which does not depend on the number of collusive nodes. Next, based on sliding window and modified access polynomial, Sch-I and Sch-II are proposed to achieve the security and tolerate packet losses, which allow pairwise keys between member nodes and group manager to be updated dynamically. Finally, theoretical analysis validates that the proposed schemes have δ self-healing capability, any-wise forward security and backward security, and enhanced collusion resistance capability, and can also avoid the flaws of access polynomials and reduce the resource consumption. Compared with existing schemes, they are quite suitable for practical applications.

Key Generation Algorithms for Pairwise Independent Networks Based on Graphical Models

We consider two secret key generation problems under a pairwise independent network model, and propose low complexity key generation schemes in a framework that connects our problems to network flow problems in graphs. Our schemes have two components: 1) local key generation and 2) global key propagation. In the local key generation, we use point-to-point source coding with side information to establish pairwise keys, from which we construct a graph with the capacity of each edge being the key rate of the corresponding point-to-point local key. In the global key propagation, depending on the particular problem, secret keys are delivered to users in the network using various network flow algorithms. In particular, in the first problem in which one is required to generate a group key for a group of users in the network, we propose a network coding-based global key propagation approach. This approach has a low complexity and has a better performance than the existing approach. In the second problem, in which one is required to generate multiple keys simultaneously for different pairs of users, we propose a multicommodity flow-based global key propagation approach. We show that the proposed approach is optimal for the case of generating two keys. For the general case of generating more than two keys, we show that the sum rate of the proposed scheme is larger than an upper bound characterized in this paper divided by a constant.

Predistribution Scheme for Establishing Group Keys in Wireless Sensor Networks

Special designs are needed for cryptographic schemes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This is because sensor nodes are limited in memory storage and computational power. In 1992, Blundo et al. proposed a noninteractive group key establishment scheme using a multivariate polynomial. Their scheme can establish a group key of $m$ sensors. Since each share is a polynomial involving $m-1$ variables and having degree $k$ , each sensor needs to store $(k+1)^{m-1}$ coefficients from GF $(p)$ , which is exponentially proportional to the size of group. This makes their scheme only practical when $m=2$ for peer-to-peer communication. So far, most existing predistribution schemes in WSNs establish pairwise keys for sensor nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel design to propose a predistribution scheme for establishing group keys in WSNs. Our design uses a special-type multivariate polynomial in $Z_{N} ,$ where $N$ is a RSA modulus. The advantage of using this type of multivariate polynomial can limit the storage space of each sensor to be $m(k+1)$ , which is linearly proportional to the size of group communication. In addition, we prove the security of the proposed scheme and show that the computational complexity of the proposed scheme is efficient.

Mobility Based Key Management Security Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs) handling mobility of nodes in key management is a challenging task. In this paper, a mobility management technique for keying scheme of WSNs is presented. The technique selects nodes with high energy resources, wide communication range and high processing capacity as cluster heads. Cluster keys for cluster heads and pairwise keys for nodes are generated by the sink through exclusion basis systems. Whenever a node moves from currently connected cluster to another in the network, the mobility based key management scheme is triggered. The sink verifies the authenticity of roaming node and allocates it to a nearby cluster. New pairwise keys are generated and transmitted to the roaming node through newly connected cluster head. Further, a key organization technique is presented to ensure the forward and backward secrecy of nodes. The proposed technique is simulated in NS2 and simulation results show the efficiency of our technique.

A Key Distribution Scheme for WSN Based on Hash Chains and Deployment Knowledge

Based on the deployment knowledge and the irreversibility of some hash chains, a novel pairwise key distribution scheme (DKH-KD) for wireless sensor networks is proposed. In DKH-KD scheme, before the nodes in the network are deployed, the offline server constructs a number of hash chains and uses the values from a pair of reverse hash chains to establish their pairwise keys among the nodes in the same region, while, among the neighbor nodes in the different regions, some pairs of the hash chains based on the deployment knowledge are employed to establish the pairwise keys. These procedures make the attackers hard to break the network and ensure that the probability of the pairwise key establishment is close to 1. Compared with the Dai scheme and the q-composite's scheme, our analyses show that DKH-KD scheme can improve the probability of the pairwise key establishment and the invulnerability more efficiently.

Dynamic threshold secret reconstruction and its application to the threshold cryptography

Shamir's (t,n) secret sharing scheme (SS) is based on a univariate polynomial and is the most cited SS in the literature. The secret in a (t,n) SS can be recovered either by exactly t or more than t shareholders. Most SSs only consider when there are exactly t shareholders participated in the secret reconstruction. In this paper, we examine security issues related to the secret reconstruction if there are more than t shareholders participated in the secret reconstruction. We propose a dynamic threshold SS based on a bivariate polynomial in which shares generated by the dealer can be used to reconstruct the secret but having a larger threshold which is equivalent to the exact number of participated shareholders in the process. In addition, we extend the proposed scheme to enable shares which can also be used to establish pairwise keys to protect the reconstructed secret from non-shareholders. Shamir's SS has been used in conjunction with other public-key algorithms in most existing threshold algorithms. Our proposed SS can also be applied to the threshold cryptography to develop efficient threshold algorithms.

Matrix-based key pre-distribution schemes in WMNs using pre and post deployment knowledge

Like other types of wireless networks, wireless communication in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is vulnerable to many malicious activities. Thus it is a must to protect wireless transmission by proper security measures. As a fundamental security technology, symmetric key pre-distribution has been widely studied to ensure the security of wireless communication. This paper presents two matrix-based pairwise key establishment schemes for mesh clients. In our schemes, a mesh client only needs to pre-load an independent key seed which can be used to generate a column of secret matrix. It can establish pairwise keys with neighbour clients after mesh routers broadcast public matrices. Motivated by this heterogeneity (mesh routers are much more powerful than mesh clients, both in communication and storage), energy-consuming operations can be delegated to mesh routers to alleviate the overhead of mesh clients when they establish pairwise keys. By using pre and post deployment knowledge, neighbour mesh clients in our scheme can directly establish pairwise keys with a very light communication and storage cost.

Secure Coverage Tree Construction Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, nodes usually construct tree structure in any monitored area to enable data aggregation and to transmit aggregated data by multi-hopping through neighbors to a remote sink (BS) which results in significant energy savings. Further- more, a captured sensor node might generate a fictitious data and misguide the Sink (BS). Hence, secure communication between nodes have generally vital importance. Secret shared keys are needed to be established among sensor nodes for secure communication among them. In the present work a new algorithm is introduced to construct such a tree of sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks. This algorithm implements a sleep/wake scheduling technique to keep redundant nodes inactive while maintaining initial sensing coverage with active nodes. Redundant nodes can replace the failure nodes to keep network tasks that enhances the network lifetime by efficient utilization. Hence the objective of this research work is to jointly design the scheme for sensor scheduling, tree construction with active nodes, and secret pair-wise keys establishment with their parent and children such that the network lifetime can be maximized. Thereafter, sensor nodes communicate with each other securely using secret pair-wise keys.

Mixing in Random Digraphs with Application to the Forward-Secure Key Evolution in Wireless Sensor Networks

A key distribution scheme for wireless sensor networks based on a system of dynamic, pairwise keys is considered. In the scheme, each pair of communicating nodes shares pairwise symmetric keys and changes them at every transmission using a set of hashing functions. This article examines security aspects of the protocol. The most important issue is to ensure that it is infeasible for an adversary to restrict exhaustive key search to a subset of the keyspace. This desirable property holds if, after a small number of random key transitions, the distribution of keys among the nodes is close to uniform. The article provides a rigorous mathematical analysis of the distribution of keys and supplements it with experimental results. The problem is reduced to the question of determining mixing time and the stationary distribution of a random walk on a random digraph. It is shown that with probability close to 1, the mixing time is of small order and the fluctuations of the distribution are limited. This ensures the ongoing security of the protocol by making the communications forward secure and protecting against node compromise.

LU Decomposition-Based Key Predistribution Scheme for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Since LU decomposition-based key predistribution schemes can be compressed easily, they are very appropriate for source-limited sensor networks. But existing schemes have two flaws: (1) they all focus on key establishment without considering key or key material update, thus they can't support extra nodes addition or deletion and their supported network size is limited; (2) they are vulnerable to LU attack. To conquer those drawbacks, a new LU decomposition-based key predistribution scheme for clustered heterogeneous sensor networks is proposed. Our scheme applies perturbation technology on matrices which are generated by LU decomposition, and establishes common bit-string between nodes by exchanging public vectors. These common bit-strings shared by nodes are randomly truncated and catenated one by one to form pairwise keys. When new nodes arrive or old nodes leave, this scheme updates key materials quickly by exploiting LU attack principle. Security and performance analysis show that our proposed scheme is feasible for sensor networks and has following two advantages: (1) It is robust to eavesdropping attack, Albrecht's attack, LU attack and node capture attack; (2) It supports efficient key update for adding and deleting nodes while keeping original information about private matrix in secret.