Ismail Mansour

Evaluation of a Fast Symmetric Cryptographic Algorithm Based on the Chaos Theory for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are being more and more considered for critical applications where security issues are a priority. Security protocols are based on complicated algorithms that are very time consuming. The limited processing capabilities of sensor nodes make these protocols even more time consuming. Security algorithms based on the theory of chaos have been introduced in order to reduce the complexity of cryptographic operations. A novel chaos based algorithm aiming at enhancing the security robustness has been proposed for wireless sensor networks. On the other hand, a version of the well known AES algorithm has been adopted by various wireless sensor networks standards such as ZigBee, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a, for it is considered as a reliable and robust algorithm. In this paper, we evaluated both algorithms on TelosB motes and prove that the chaos based algorithm is much faster than the AES based algorithm and still achieve the same cryptography quality.

Security architecture for wireless sensor networks using frequency hopping and public key management

The security aspect of wireless sensor networks has taken the attention of numerous researchers in the past several years. It has recently been proven that public keys are now feasible in wireless sensor networks but still consume a lot of processing time and memory. In this paper we propose the use of public keys based on ECC to exchange symmetric keys that will be used to encrypt communications. In addition, we propose a time segmentation approach that enables frequency hopping time slotted communications. Nodes secretly exchange frequency hopping sequences that enable them to fight against jamming and eavesdropping.

Key Management inWireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are a challenging field of research when it comes to security issues. Using low cost sensor nodes with limited resources makes it difficult for cryptographic algorithms to function without impacting energy consumption and latency. In this paper, we focus on key management issues in multi-hop wireless sensor networks. These networks are easy to attack due to the open nature of the wireless medium. Intruders could try to penetrate the network, capture nodes or take control over particular nodes. In this context, it is important to revoke and renew keys that might be learned by malicious nodes. We propose several secure protocols for key revocation and key renewal based on symmetric encryption and elliptic curve cryptography. All protocols are secure, but have different security levels. Each proposed protocol is formally proven and analyzed using Scyther, an automatic verification tool for cryptographic protocols. For efficiency comparison sake, we implemented all protocols on real testbeds using TelosB motes and discussed their performances.

Multihop Node Authentication Mechanisms for Wireless Sensor Networks

Designing secure authentication mechanisms in wireless sensor networks in order to associate a node to a secure network is not an easy task due to the limitations of this type of networks. In this paper, we propose different multihop node authentication protocols for wireless sensor networks. For each protocol, we provide a formal proof using Scyther to verify the security of our proposals. We also provide implementation results in terms of execution time consumption obtained by real measurements on TelosB motes. These protocols offer different levels of quality of protection depending on the design of the protocol itself. Finally, we evaluate the overhead of protection of each solution, using AQoPA tool, by varying the security parameters and studying the effect on execution time overhead of each protocol for several network sizes.

Evaluation of different cryptographic algorithms on wireless sensor network nodes

Security aspects in wireless sensor networks is getting more and more attention in the recent years. Wireless sensor networks are being considered for critical applications where the security issues are a priority. The limited capacities of wireless sensor nodes and the complex algorithms of the security protocols make the subject challenging. Security algorithms are divided into two main families: symmetric and asymmetric algorithms. In this paper we evaluate different symmetric and asymmetric security algorithms in terms of time and energy consumption on one hand and memory usage on another hand.

Evaluation of Secure Multi-Hop Node Authentication and Key Establishment Mechanisms for Wireless Sensor Networks

Designing secure authentication mechanisms in wireless sensor networks in order to associate a node to a secure network is not an easy task due to the limitations of this type of networks. In this paper, we propose different multi-hop node authentication protocols for wireless sensor networks. For each protocol, we provide a formal proof to verify the security of our proposals using Scyther, which is an automatic cryptographic protocols verification tool. We also provide implementation results in terms of execution time consumption obtained by real measurements on TelosB motes. These protocols offer different security mechanisms depending on the design of the protocol itself. Moreover, we evaluate the overhead of protection of each solution by studying the effect on execution time overhead of each protocol. Finally, we propose a mechanism to detect possible attack based on our evaluation results.

Secure key renewal and revocation for Wireless Sensor Networks

Once a secure mechanism for authenticated communication is deployed in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), several situations may arise: a node can leave the network, a new node can join the network, an intruder could try to join the network or capture a node. Therefore it is important to revoke and renew certain keys that are learned by a malicious node. We propose several secure WSN protocols for revocations and renewal of cryptographic keys in the network based on symmetric encryption and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). For all our solutions, we provide a formal analysis of the security of our protocols using Scyther, an automatic verification tool for cryptographic protocols. All the proposed protocols are proven secure but have different security levels by using different types of keys. Finally we implemented all our protocols on real testbeds using TelosB motes and compared their efficiency.

Secure Multihop Key Establishment Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Designing secure communication protocols is not an easy task. Cryptography is often necessary but does not always guarantee the security of protocols as several famous examples attest in the literature. Moreover, in the context of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) the design is even more difficult due to the limited resources of sensor nodes that add extra constraints to take into account. During the life time of a secure WSN, one of the first crucial steps is the key establishment between two nodes. In this paper we propose four secure multihop key establishment protocols based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). For each protocol, we make a formal security proof using the automatic tool Scyther. Then, in order to evaluate their performances, we implemented them on testbeds using TelosB motes and TinyOS. Results allow us to estimate the overhead of our key establishment methods.