Paper Info
Title
Cryptanalysis and security improvements of 'two-factor user authentication in wireless sensor networks'.
Abstract
User authentication in wireless sensor networks (WSN) is a critical security issue due to their unattended and hostile deployment in the field. Since sensor nodes are equipped with limited computing power, storage, and communication modules; authenticating remote users in such resource-constrained environments is a paramount security concern. Recently, M. L. Das proposed a two-factor user authentication scheme in WSNs and claimed that his scheme is secure against different kinds of attack. However, in this paper, we show that the M. L. Das-scheme has some critical security pitfalls and cannot be recommended for real applications. We point out that in his scheme: users cannot change/update their passwords, it does not provide mutual authentication between gateway node and sensor node, and is vulnerable to gateway node bypassing attack and privileged-insider attack. To overcome the inherent security weaknesses of the M. L. Das-scheme, we propose improvements and security patches that attempt to fix the susceptibilities of his scheme. The proposed security improvements can be incorporated in the M. L. Das-scheme for achieving a more secure and robust two-factor user authentication in WSNs.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.3390/s100302450
SENSORS
Keywords
Field
DocType
authentication,wireless sensor network,security,smart card,cryptanalysis
Key distribution in wireless sensor networks,Mutual authentication,Computer security,Challenge–response authentication,Computer network,Authentication protocol,Cloud computing security,Engineering,Reflection attack,Network Access Control,Computer security model
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
10
3
1424-8220
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
150
4.68
15
Authors
2
Search Limit
100150
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Muhammad Khurram Khan13538204.81
Khaled Alghathbar249832.54