Blockchain-based secret key extraction for efficient and secure authentication in VANETs. (May 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shawky, Mahmoud A.; Usman, Muhammad; Flynn, David; Imran, Muhammad Ali; Abbasi, Qammer H.; Ansari, Shuja; Taha, Ahmad
• Is Part Of: Journal of information security and applications. Volume 74(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Subjects: AVISPA simulation -- BAN-logic -- Key reconciliation -- Public key infrastructure -- Secret key extraction -- Smart contracts-based blockchain; Computer security -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Security measures -- Periodicals; 005.805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jisa.2023.103476
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-2126

Abstract

Abstract: Intelligent transportation systems are an emerging technology that facilitates real-time vehicle-to-everything communication. Hence, securing and authenticating data packets for intra- and inter-vehicle communication are fundamental security services in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). However, public-key cryptography ( P K C ) is commonly used in signature-based authentication, which consumes significant computation resources and communication bandwidth for signatures generation and verification, and key distribution. Therefore, physical layer-based secret key extraction has emerged as an effective candidate for key agreement, exploiting the randomness and reciprocity features of wireless channels. However, the imperfect channel reciprocity generates discrepancies in the extracted key, and existing reconciliation algorithms suffer from significant communication costs and security issues. In this paper, P K C -based authentication is used for initial legitimacy detection and exchanging authenticated probing packets. Accordingly, we propose a blockchain-based reconciliation technique that allows the trusted third party ( T T P ) to publish the correction sequence of the mismatched bits through a transaction using a smart contract. The smart contract functions enable the T T P to map the transaction address to vehicle-related information and allow vehicles to obtain the transaction contents securely. The obtained shared key is then used for symmetric key cryptography ( S K C )-based authentication for subsequent transmissions, saving significant computation and communication costs. The correctness and security robustness of the scheme are proved using Burrows–Abadi–Needham (BAN)-logic and Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) simulator. We also discussed the scheme's resistance to typical attacks. The scheme's performance in terms of packet delay and loss ratio is evaluated using the network simulator (OMNeT++). Finally, the computation analysis shows that the scheme saves ∼ 99 % of the time required to verify 1000 messages compared to existing P K C -based schemes.