Random Key Predistribution Research Articles

Research progress on wireless sensor network (WSN) security technology

Abstract Wireless sensor network (WSN) has been a frontier technology field that integrates a variety of technologies and has a wide range of applications in the military. Network security is of great significance in military warfare. First, this paper outlines the technical advantages of the application of military based on the technical characteristics of WSN. In military applications, WSN has been used in modern military combat while WSN features easy and fast deployment, high concealment, good fault tolerance, high accuracy and other obvious advantages. Moreover, from the perspective of network security, this paper reviews the research progress of network security technology at the network level and data level. The network level includes security protocols, key management, and secure routing technology, and key management includes pre-shared key mode and random key pre-distribution mode. At the data level, error control and fault-tolerant algorithms are mainly included. Automatic retransmission and forward error correction techniques are traditional error control methods, which should be combined with the specific situation of WSN to propose the corresponding fault-tolerant mechanism. Finally, this paper summarizes the practical applications of WSN in the military. From battlefield reconnaissance and target localization monitoring to destruction effect control and anti-terrorism equipment research, network security has been a top priority. Against the background of practical military applications, this paper summarizes the research significance of network security technology.

Key Distribution Strategy of Wireless Sensor Network Based on Multi-Hash Chain

Key management is the basis of the security mechanism for wireless sensor networks and services, and random key pre-distribution is the most effective key management mechanism at present. However, there is a potential challenge to most current random key pre-distribution strategies: it is difficult to achieve both ideal network security connectivity and network survivability. In this paper, we present a novel random key pre-distribution scheme based on the hash chain. By adjusting certain system parameters, such as the hash chain length, the number of common auxiliary nodes and the number of hash chains, a sensor node only need to preload a few of keys, making it possible to establish the pairwise key with high probability among its neighboring nodes. The proposed scheme can still maintain strong network survivability even if there are many compromised nodes. The theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the proposed scheme is not only effective and secure, but also scalable.

On the Minimum Node Degree and k-Connectivity in Inhomogeneous Random K-Out Graphs

Inhomogeneous random K-out graphs were recently introduced to model heterogeneous sensor networks secured by random pairwise key predistribution schemes. First, each of the n nodes is classified as type-1 (respectively, type-2) with probability 0 <; μ <; 1 (respectively, 1-μ) independently from each other. Next, each type-1 (respectively, type-2) node draws 1 arc towards a node (respectively, K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> arcs towards K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> distinct nodes) selected uniformly at random, and then the orientation of the arcs is ignored. It was recently established that the inhomogeneous random K-out graph is 1-connected asymptotically almost surely (a.a.s.) if and only if K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> =ω(1). In this work, we analyze the k-connectivity of inhomogeneous random K-out graphs; i.e., with k=1, 2, <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> ⋯</sub> , the property that the network remains connected despite the removal of any k-1 nodes or links. We first establish a zero-one law for the property that the minimum node degree is at least k. In particular, we present scaling conditions on μ and K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> such that the resulting graph has minimum degree at least k with probability approaching one (respectively, zero) constituting the one-law (respectively, zero-law), as the number of nodes gets large. We show that for k=2, 3, <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">⋯</sub> , we need to set K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> = \frac 11-μ(logn +(k-2)loglogn + ω(1)) for the network to have a minimum node degree of at least k a.a.s. Next, we prove that having K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> = \frac 11-μ(logn +(k-2)loglogn + ω(1)) also ensures that the graph is k-connected a.a.s., meaning that the zero-one laws for minimum node degree and k-connectivity coincide. We present simulation results to demonstrate the usefulness of the results in the finite node regime. The results given here indicate an interesting fact about inhomogeneous random K-out graphs, i.e., that the number of additional edges needed to go from 1-connectivity to k-connectivity with k ≥ 2 is unexpectedly larger as compared to many classical random graph models studied before.

$k$ -Connectivity of Inhomogeneous Random Key Graphs With Unreliable Links

We consider secure and reliable connectivity in wireless sensor networks that utilize the heterogeneous random key predistribution scheme. We model the unreliability of wireless links by an on/off channel model that induces an Erdős-Renyi graph, while the heterogeneous scheme induces an inhomogeneous random key graph. The overall network can thus be modeled by the intersection of both graphs. We present conditions (in the form of zero-one laws) on how to scale the parameters of the intersection model, so that with high probability: i) all of its nodes are connected to at least ${k}$ other nodes, i.e., the minimum node degree of the graph is no less than $ {k}$ , and ii) the graph is $ {k}$ -connected, i.e., the graph remains connected even if any $ {k} - {1}$ nodes leave the network. These results are shown to complement and generalize several previous results in the literature. We also present numerical results to support our findings in the finite-node regime. Finally, we demonstrate via simulations that our results are also useful when the on/off channel model is replaced with the more realistic disk communication model .

A Novel Technique for Improving the Security of WSN Using Random Key PreDistribution Scheme

A Novel Technique for Improving the Security of WSN Using Random Key PreDistribution Scheme

Key establishment scheme for wireless sensor networks based on polynomial and random key predistribution scheme

Establishing communication keys for pairs of neighbouring sensor nodes is the foundation of the security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, due to the resource constraints on nodes, this task is challenging for the constrained memory, energy, and computational capabilities of sensor nodes. This paper proposes a novel key predistribution scheme based on the polynomial pool-based key predistribution scheme and random key predistribution. In the proposed scheme, parts of the preloaded information in each sensor node are the polynomial shares and the rest of the preloaded information are the keys generated by the polynomial shares preloaded in the sensor nodes. Performance analyses and comparisons with other schemes are performed in this paper. The comparison of security results confirm that the proposed scheme has better resilience against node compromising attacks when compared to previous schemes.

On Resilience and Connectivity of Secure Wireless Sensor Networks Under Node Capture Attacks

Despite much research on probabilistic key predistribution schemes for wireless sensor networks over the past decade, few formal analyses exist that define schemes' resilience to node-capture attacks precisely and under realistic conditions. In this paper, we analyze the resilience of the q-composite key predistribution scheme, which mitigates the node capture vulnerability of the Eschenauer-Gligor scheme in the neighbor discovery phase. We derive scheme parameters to have a desired level of resiliency, and obtain optimal parameters that defend against different adversaries as much as possible. We also show that this scheme can be easily enhanced to achieve the same “perfect resilience" property as in the random pairwise key predistribution for attacks launched after neighbor discovery. Despite considerable attention to this scheme, much prior work explicitly or implicitly uses an incorrect computation for the probability of link compromise under node-capture attacks and ignores the real-world transmission constraints of sensor nodes. Moreover, we derive the critical network parameters to ensure connectivity in both the absence and presence of node-capture attacks. We also investigate node replication attacks by analyzing the adversary's optimal strategy.

$k$ -Connectivity in Random $K$ -Out Graphs Intersecting Erdős-Rényi Graphs

We investigate $k$ -connectivity in secure wireless sensor networks under the random pairwise key predistribution scheme with unreliable links. When wireless communication links are modeled as independent on-off channels, this amounts to analyzing a random graph model formed by intersecting a random $K$ -out graph and an Erdős-Renyi graph. We present conditions on how to scale the parameters of this intersection model so that the resulting graph is $k$ -connected with probability approaching to one (resp. zero) as the number of nodes gets large. The resulting zero-one law is shown to improve and sharpen the previous result on the 1-connectivity of the same model. We also provide numerical results to support our analysis.

Detection of Sybil Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are prone to different types of attacks from malicious sources. These attacks are aimed at generating incorrect data or modifying legitimate data that is in transit in the network. A Sybil attack is a type of attack on WSNs where a malicious node either fabricates some new identities for itself or steals identities of some legitimate nodes. It can be countered in three basic methods. The first method verifies if a particular identity actually belongs to a real unique entity. The second method manages the cost and profit of acquiring identities. The third method focuses on confining the effects of the Sybil attack. However, these methods may not be used in wireless sensor networks directly. This is so because there are restrictions on the computational and storage capabilities of sensor nodes. Currently some of the principal detection schemes that are used in wireless sensor networks are radio resource testing, verification of key sets for random key predistribution, registration and position verification. The radio resource verification defense can be broken with custom radio hardware, and validation may be costly in terms of energy. Position verification can only put a limitation on how many Sybil nodes an attacker can generate unless it is able to very precisely verify node positions. Node registration needs human effort to securely add nodes to the network, and involves a way to securely maintain and query the current known topology information. The proposed method proposes a new approach to authenticate a sensor node based on a cryptographic hash function. It detects Sybil nodes so that they are isolated and any type of Sybil attack is avoided. This method performs well in terms of energy and memory usage when compared to previous methods.

Energy efficient routing algorithm over cross layer design and enrichment of security in ZigBee network

The necessity for saving energy, increasing the channel utilisation and security in wireless personal area networks (WPAN) has become crucial, particularly in essential fields like military and medical applications. Thus ZigBee desires an efficient routing protocol to deal with lowest amount of energy expenses and highest network life time. In this paper, ZigBee provides cross layer network protection and application service carried out with hierarchical cluster tree formation. MAC layer utilises the cluster tree formula to establish tree configuration. Subsequently, that cluster table is taken to the routing layer protocol of cross layer ZigBee-based routing protocol (CLZBRP). Here CLZBRP is compared with ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing (AODV) and tree-routing (TR) with QOS. The Sybil attack is encountered by the defense mechanism called random key predistribution technique (I-RKP). It is observed from the experimental result that the proposed approach provides good security against Sybil attack with very high throughput using CLZBRP-I-RKP.

Energy efficient routing algorithm over cross layer design and enrichment of security in ZigBee network

The necessity for saving energy, increasing the channel utilisation and security in wireless personal area networks (WPAN) has become crucial, particularly in essential fields like military and medical applications. Thus ZigBee desires an efficient routing protocol to deal with lowest amount of energy expenses and highest network life time. In this paper, ZigBee provides cross layer network protection and application service carried out with hierarchical cluster tree formation. MAC layer utilises the cluster tree formula to establish tree configuration. Subsequently, that cluster table is taken to the routing layer protocol of cross layer ZigBee-based routing protocol (CLZBRP). Here CLZBRP is compared with ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing (AODV) and tree-routing (TR) with QOS. The Sybil attack is encountered by the defense mechanism called random key predistribution technique (I-RKP). It is observed from the experimental result that the proposed approach provides good security against Sybil attack with very high throughput using CLZBRP-I-RKP.

A novel message authentication method for VANET without RSU

Purpose Riding on the wave of intelligent transportation systems, the vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is becoming a popular research topic. VANET is designed to build an environment where the vehicles can exchange information about the traffic conditions or vehicle situation to help the vehicles avoid traffic accidents or traffic jams. In order to keep the privacy of vehicles, the vehicles must be anonymous and the routing must be untraceable while still being able to be verified as legal entities. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The exchanged messages must be authenticated to be genuine and verified that they were sent by a legal vehicle. The vehicles also can mutually trust and communicate confidentially. In VANETs, road-side units (RSUs) are installed to help the vehicles to obtain message authentication or communicate confidentially. However, the coverage of RSUs is limited due to the high cost of wide area installation. Therefore the vehicles must be able to obtain message authentication by themselves – without an RSU. Findings The authors take the concept of random key pre-distribution used in wireless sensor networks, modify it into a random secret pre-distribution, and integrate it with identity-based cryptography to make anonymous message authentication and private communication easier and safer. The authors construct a two-tier structure. The tier 1, trust authority, assigns n anonymous identities and embeds n secrets into these identities to be the private secret keys for the tier 2, registered vehicles. At any time, the vehicles can randomly choose one of n anonymous identities to obtain message authentication or communicate confidentially with other vehicles. Originality/value The processes of building neighbor set, setting pairing value, and message authenticating are proposed in this paper. The proposed method can protect against the attacks of compromising, masquerading, forging, and replying, and can also achieve the security requirements of VANET in message authentication, confidential communication, anonymity, and un-traceability. The performance of the proposed method is superior to the related works.

A Hybrid Approach for Path Vulnerability Matrix on Random Key Predistribution for Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we address the problem of physical node capture attack from an adversarial view. In this type of attack, an adversary intelligently captures the node(s) and extracts the cryptographic information to destroy the privacy, safety and reliability of the network. We propose a novel hybrid approach for constructing the path vulnerability matrix that maximizes the attacking efficiency and lowers the resource expenditure of the adversary. The main strength of the proposed matrix lies in incorporating various criteria such as the type of application running on the nodes, capturing cost, key dominance ranking, articulation point and intersecting shortest path nodes in estimating the vulnerability. The location of the data sink is considered as a major factor in estimating the vulnerability of the nodes in the network. The proposed matrix is compared with existing attacking strategies in terms of the number of attacking rounds, energy cost and fraction of compromised traffic. Although in this paper, we have considered adversarial point of view but the proposed matrix can be extended for the defender application also. The path vulnerability matrix provides vulnerability estimation that can be used to analyze system security weakness and helps to defend against them effectively and efficiently. The performance of proposed approach has been validated with respect to average path compromise ratio, average routing path length and average route successful ratio. We have also introduced an attack resistant random key predistribution scheme based on the proposed approach and the results confirm its effectiveness in decreasing node capture impact.

Zero-One Laws for Connectivity in Inhomogeneous Random Key Graphs

We introduce a new random key predistribution scheme for securing heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. Each of the n sensors in the network is classified into r classes according to some probability distribution {\mu} = {{\mu}_1 , . . . , {\mu}_r }. Before deployment, a class-i sensor is assigned K_i cryptographic keys that are selected uniformly at random from a common pool of P keys. Once deployed, a pair of sensors can communicate securely if and only if they have a key in common. We model the communication topology of this network by a newly defined inhomogeneous random key graph. We establish scaling conditions on the parameters P and {K_1 , . . . , K_r } so that this graph i) has no isolated nodes; and ii) is connected, both with high probability. The results are given in the form of zero-one laws with the number of sensors n growing unboundedly large; critical scalings are identified and shown to coincide for both graph properties. Our results are shown to complement and improve those given by Godehardt et al. and Zhao et al. for the same model, therein referred to as the general random intersection graph.

Optimization of key predistribution protocol based on supernetworks theory in heterogeneous WSN

This work develops an equilibrium model for finding the optimal distribution strategy to maximize performance of key predistribution protocols in terms of cost, resilience, connectivity, and lifetime. As an essential attribute of wireless sensor networks, heterogeneity and its impacts on random key predistribution protocols are first discussed. Using supernetworks theory, the optimal node deployment model is proposed and illustrated. In order to find the equilibrium performance of our model, all optimal performance functions are changed into variational inequalities so that this optimization problem can be solved. A small-scale example is presented to illustrate the applicability of our model.

An Improved Random Key Predistribution Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Deployment Knowledge

Key management is the basis of many security mechanisms and services in wireless sensor networks (WSN). Random key predistribution scheme is widely considered as the most practical for WSN. However, this scheme faces the challenge that it cannot achieve the ideal security connectivity and strong resilience against node capture simultaneously. To address this limitation, an improved random key predistribution scheme using deployment knowledge is proposed in this paper. Firstly, sensor nodes are divided into different groups according to their location expected. And the key pool is grouped into key pool subsets accordingly. To realize the communication between adjacent groups, the corresponding key pool subsets have a certain degree of overlapping. For all keys, there is no limitation on key reuse. Neighboring nodes sharing q common keys will establish secure link with high probability. Moreover, our scheme inherits the advantage of qcomposite random key predistribution scheme that it can maintain security even if some nodes are captured. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the improved scheme performs well on network connectivity and resilience.

A Hybrid Key Management Scheme for WSNs Based on PPBR and a Tree-Based Path Key Establishment Method.

With the development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), in most application scenarios traditional WSNs with static sink nodes will be gradually replaced by Mobile Sinks (MSs), and the corresponding application requires a secure communication environment. Current key management researches pay less attention to the security of sensor networks with MS. This paper proposes a hybrid key management schemes based on a Polynomial Pool-based key pre-distribution and Basic Random key pre-distribution (PPBR) to be used in WSNs with MS. The scheme takes full advantages of these two kinds of methods to improve the cracking difficulty of the key system. The storage effectiveness and the network resilience can be significantly enhanced as well. The tree-based path key establishment method is introduced to effectively solve the problem of communication link connectivity. Simulation clearly shows that the proposed scheme performs better in terms of network resilience, connectivity and storage effectiveness compared to other widely used schemes.

Mutual trust method for forwarding information in wireless sensor networks using random secret pre-distribution

In wireless sensor networks, sensing information must be transmitted from sensor nodes to the base station by multiple hopping. Every sensor node is a sender and a relay node that forwards the sensing information that is sent by other nodes. Under an attack, the sensing information may be intercepted, modified, interrupted, or fabricated during transmission. Accordingly, the development of mutual trust to enable a secure path to be established for forwarding information is an important issue. Random key pre-distribution has been proposed to establish mutual trust among sensor nodes. This article modifies the random key pre-distribution to a random secret pre-distribution and incorporates identity-based cryptography to establish an effective method of establishing mutual trust for a wireless sensor network. In the proposed method, base station assigns an identity and embeds n secrets into the private secret keys for every sensor node. Based on the identity and private secret keys, the mutual trust method is utilized to explore the types of trust among neighboring sensor nodes. The novel method can resist malicious attacks and satisfy the requirements of wireless sensor network, which are resistance to compromising attacks, masquerading attacks, forger attacks, replying attacks, authentication of forwarding messages, and security of sensing information.

An Empirical Study on Key Management Schemes of Wireless Sensor Network

The ample use of Wireless Sensor Network demands highly effective security mechanism for its sound operation in any hostile environment. The security of encrypted information greatly dependents on the rigidity of underlying Key Management techniques. Hence, key management becomes the most significant issue in case of security of Wireless Sensor Networks. The purpose of this paper is to assess most significant key management schemes of wireless sensor networks e.g. single network-wide key scheme, pairwise key establishment scheme, random key pre-distribution and Qcomposite random key pre-distribution scheme. The overall analysis is performed based on a number of criteria such as: loaded key utilization, resource consumption and rigidity against node capture. Besides, to identify the best one, a result based comparison among the schemes is also presented.

Secure Trust Based Key Management Routing Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks

Security is always a major concern in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Several trust based routing protocols are designed that play an important role in enhancing the performance of a wireless network. However they still have some disadvantages like limited energy resources, susceptibility to physical capture, and little protection against various attacks due to insecure wireless communication channels. This paper presents a secure trust based key management (STKF) routing framework that establishes a secure trustworthy route depending upon the present and past node to node interactions. This route is then updated by isolating the malicious or compromised nodes from the route, if any, and a dedicated link is created between every pair of nodes in the selected route with the help of “q” composite random key predistribution scheme (RKPS) to ensure data delivery from source to destination. The performance of trust aware secure routing framework (TSRF) is compared with the proposed routing scheme. The results indicate that STKF provides an effective mechanism for finding out a secure route with better trustworthiness than TSRF which avoids the data dropping, thereby increasing the data delivery ratio. Also the distance required to reach the destination in the proposed protocol is less hence effectively utilizing the resources.