One-time sensors: A novel concept to mitigate node-capture attacks

Bicakci K., Gamage C., Crispo B., Tanenbaum A. S.

Second European Workshop on Security and Privacy in Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks, ESAS 2005, Visegrad, Hungary, 13 - 14 July 2005, vol.3813 LNCS, pp.80-90 identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Volume: 3813 LNCS
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/11601494_7
  • City: Visegrad
  • Country: Hungary
  • Page Numbers: pp.80-90
  • Keywords: Merkle's hash tree, Node-capture attack, One-time sensor, Sensor network security, Sybil attack
  • Istanbul Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

Dealing with captured nodes is generally accepted as the most difficult challenge to wireless sensor network security. By utilizing the low-cost property of sensor nodes, we introduce the novel concept of one-time sensors to mitigate node-capture attacks. The basic idea is to load each sensor with only one cryptographic token so that the captured node can inject only a single malicious message into the network. In addition, sybil attacks are avoided and explicit revocation is not necessary using one-time sensors. By using public key techniques, one-way hash functions and Merkle's hash tree, we also show efficient implementations and interesting tradeoffs for one-time sensors. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.