A New Security Protocol Based on Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems for Securing Wireless Sensor Networks

Elliptic curve cryptography is a relatively new public-key cryptography mechanism which has been becoming more popular in recent years. Its usage has been increasing in various fields using different cryptographic protocols, such as Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and the ElGamal encryption scheme. Several attacks have been developed to solve the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem. One of the most practical generic attacks is the Pollard's Rho algorithm, which originates as an algorithm for prime factorisation. This paper will attempt to provide a statistical insight on how various factors, namely the private-public key pairs and parameters within the sequence used in Pollard's Rho algorithm, may affect the performance speed of the algorithm. This will be done using the ANOVA statistical test. which shows that from the perspective of the initial values and addends of the sequences, the Pollard's Rho algorithm is "random" enough.

This document describes algorithms based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) for use within the Secure Shell (SSH) transport protocol. In particular, it specifies: Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key agreement, Elliptic Curve Menezes-Qu-Vanstone (ECMQV) key agreement and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for use in the SSH Transport Layer protocol.

Elliptic curve cryptosystems (ECCs) are becoming more popular because of the reduced number of key bits required in comparison to other cryptosystems (for example, a 160 bit ecc has roughly the same security as 1024 bit RSA). ECCs are especially suited to smart cards because of the limited memory and computational power available on these devices. This paper discusses an optimized implementation of the elliptic curve Digital Signature Algorithm implemented over the field $GF(p)$ on a Motorola smart card. Algorithms for point addition, point doubling and scalar multiplication are compared according to their timings. The effects of different memory usage, code size and speed tradeoffs which were considered during the implementation are discussed. Also, optimized point addition and doubling algorithms are presented.

In this digital world, communication systems have witnessed abundant usage of media over the platforms. Among these, providing security in transmission of images is highly important, and attained a lot of research interest due to its high consideration in both the industry and the academic community. This paper proposes a hybrid asymmetric image encryption algorithm using Elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC), Hadamard transform and Hill cipher algorithms. Based on the Diffie–Hellman public key exchange method a point on the elliptic curve is selected and agreed between both the sender and receiver. The key relies upon the ECC and it is difficult to resolve the ECDLP to get it. The proposed algorithm involves two stages of encryption, primarily, the XOR function is applied on the Elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) shared secret key and the hadamard image. In the subsequent stage, ECC is combined with the hill cipher algorithm. Encryption and decryption uses self-invertible key matrix, hence the process of finding inverse key becomes redundant during decryption which improves the speed of execution. It also enhances the security and efficiency compared to original hill cipher method. The results are compared with other ECC methods proves that the current cryptosystem attains large key space, highly key sensitive, low correlation and can resist against differential and statistical attacks.

The secured data transmission in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) relies on effective key generation and secured sharing. The generated key must be random to enhance data confidentiality. The processes associated with the security in WSN must be designed at reduced computing time and communication cost. Our research work aims to design a novel lightweight key-sharing protocol that is needed for ensuring data confidentiality. The protocol must meet the constraints of WSN by being lightweight and consuming less energy. Security breaches in WSNs occur due to insecure keys. This can be overcome by generating shared keys which are generated once using the dynamic features of Sensor Nodes (SNs) when the Cluster Heads (CHs) are selected. In this research work, we have generated the Master Shared Key (MSK) at the transmitter node by forming a Galois Ring (GR) using WSN parameters and derived the Shared Random Key (SRK) using matched positions of exchanged Random Sequences (RSs). It is protected using a Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). The novelty lies in the SRK generation from MSK which is chosen at random from the polynomials generated during the formation of GR. The MSK is securely shared with the receiver node by encrypting using a Preloaded Key (PK). After this exchange, the key for encryption and decryption is derived by the transmitter and the receiver by exchanging RSs. The SRK is then encrypted using a key which is a unique fingerprint of the SN generated using PUF and stored in the SNs and the CHs to prevent node capture attack that occurs in WSN. Our proposed Shared Random Key Agreement Protocol (SRKAP) is comparable to the Localized Encryption and Authentication Protocol (LEAP) and performs better compared to the Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) algorithm

Group key agreement based on elliptic curve at ad hoc networks is studied. In order to meet the demand of efficiency and security, an improved key exchange scheme based on elliptic curve is proposed in this paper. In the scheme, elliptic curve cryptosystem and digital signature algorithm in elliptic curve field are combined to make a group key. The key is agreed on within all members who would participate in the conversation. The new improved scheme has not only the features of forward security, backward security and resisting attack, but also certain theoretical and practical values.

Elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC) was proposed by Miller [10] and Koblitz [9] which relies on the difficulty of elliptic curve discrete logarithmic problem (ECDLP). It is gaining wide acceptance as an alternative to the conventional public key cryptosystem such as RSA [24], DSA [25], DH [26]. Also it is noted that the wireless sensor networks (WSN) based on the rapid progress of wireless communications and embedded micro electro mechanical systems technologies are becoming important part in our daily life. The security of the WSN becomes one of the major concerns in its applications. Even ECC prominently offers great potential benefits for WSN security there is still a lot of work needs to be done due to WSN has very restraint running conditions such as limited energy source, capability of computing, etc. It is well known that scalar multiplication operation in ECC accounts for about 80% of key calculation time on wireless sensor network motes. In this paper we present an optimized dynamic window based on our previous research works. The whole quality of service (QoS) has been improved under this algorism in particularly the power consuming is more efficiently. The simulation results showed that the average calculation time, due to fuzzy conditions decreased from previous 26 to current 9 as a whole the calculation time, decreased by approximately 18% in comparison to our previous algorithms in an ECC wireless sensor network [23].

ABSTRACTBecause wireless sensor network (WSN), which is composed of a large number of low‐cost and resource‐constrained devices, communicates on the basis of wireless protocols such as IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee, and DASH‐7, it is easily vulnerable to eavesdropping, illegal modification, privacy infringement and denial‐of‐service attacks. These attacks destroy the data integrity, confidentiality, and authentication of the basic WSN security requirements and then the reliability and security of the WSN‐based applications are deteriorated. There have been many research efforts to make secure WSN environments. Among these efforts, TinyECC is one of outstanding works. It provides several security protocols such as Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman, Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, and Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme, based on the Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). TinyECC is basically a well‐written TinyOS‐based code and is optimized to resource‐constrained environments. The Barrett reduction, hybrid multiplication, and several optimization techniques are also used for high performance even with low‐energy consumption. However, the hybrid multiplication technique used in TinyECC is known to be not suitable for 16‐bit processor, MSP430, which is a familiar processor for sensor node. This is due to the fact that the MSP 430 processor does not provide enough number of registers for hybrid multiplication techniques. Because the multiplication operation over the finite field is a major operation of the ECC, it causes a high latency of multiplication operations and eventually degrades the performance of the ECC operation. In this paper, we propose a novel multiplication operation based on the cached operands and reordered partial products. The proposed method shows that the latency of the polynomial multiplication, which is the core operation of the ECC, is 6% smaller than previously known results. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wireless sensor networks(WSN) are a kind of communication networks with in-dependent sensor nodes which could construct multi-hop ad hoc network to trans-fer data. The transport protocols for Wireless Sensor Network play an important role to promote the performance of the whole systems. This paper proposes a modified transport layer protocol for heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks(HWSN). As TCP is not suitable to use in HWSN directly, we design a modified transport protocol(named mTCP) based on TCP by a six-state finite state machine. Experimental results illustrate that our design can improve the communication capability of the transmission layer in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks significantly.

Elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) is elliptic curve analogue of digital signature algorithm. This paper presents implementation of ECDSA on NIST recommended Elliptic curves in binary fields of size 163 bits. The work involved implementation of different modules of ECDSA on reconfigurable hardware platform (Xilinx xc6vlx240T-1ff1156). The private key generation and binary weight calculation (used in scalar multiplication) is done in software using Microblaze (soft core of Xilinx). The private key along with the other global parameters for ECDSA are passed from Microblaze to the programmable logic of FPGA where final signature generation and verification is performed. Two implementations have been done based on different word sizes in Montgomery multiplication over binary fields. The first implementation requires 0.367 ms with 11040 slices for signature generation and 0.393 ms with 12846 slices for signature verification at a clocking frequency of 100 MHz. The second implementation requires 0.615 ms with 8773 slices for signature generation and 0.672 ms with 9967 slices for signature verification at the same clocking frequency. These implementations are faster compared to other implementations reported in literature for binary curves.

Elliptic Curve Cryptography is one of the most suitable public key techniques for its small key size and high security and is suitable for secure access of Smart Card. Smart Card based authentication plays a critical role in communication network as they are using embedded processors where resources such as storage, time or power are constrained. We propose a timestamp based ECC authentication protocol which produces multiple session keys during communication in constrained environment to enhance the security. The proposed protocol is efficient as it has improved the performance timings of basic operations like key generation, signature generation / verification.KeywordsElliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA)Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH)Timestamp based Authentication Scheme

This paper concentrates on the hardware implementation of efficient and re- configurable elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) that is suitable for verifying transactions in Blockchain related applications. Despite ECDSA architecture being computationally expensive, the usage of a dedicated stand-alone circuit enables speedy execution of arithmetic operations. The prototype put forth supports N-bit elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) group operations, signature generation and verification over a prime field for any elliptic curve. The research proposes new hardware framework for modular multiplication and modular multiplicative inverse which is adopted for group operations involved in ECDSA. Every hardware design offered are simulated using modelsim register transfer logic (RTL) simulator. Field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of var- ious modules within ECDSA circuit is compared with equivalent existing techniques that is both hardware and software based to highlight the superiority of the suggested work. The results showcased prove that the designs implemented are both area and speed efficient with faster execution and less resource utilization while maintaining the same level of security. The suggested ECDSA structure could replace the software equivalent of digital signatures in hardware blockchain to thwart software attacks and to provide better data protection.

Wireless Sensor Network is the remote accessible network or the implementation of the network in the unattainable area to gather data from sensor nodes. The data from the network in wireless mesh topology is less secured based on the security features implemented. Any communication between the nodes are through the other nodes in the network. These motes in the network are restricted to memory and energy issues. Algorithms like symmetric key methods Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman Algorithm (RSA) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) are used. It has less efficiency in terms of computation and memory size. It is also harder to implement in the Hop by hop protocol where the authenticity of the message need to pass from one node to the other with limited memory and energy where the need for security is high. So for better effective security and authentication we go for the Elliptic curve cryptography(ECC) algorithm. This method is more efficient with the key size and also more secure in terms. It is less vulnerable to security threat attacks. Modified effective implementing enhanced ECC with a features like Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) in to add more secure and effective data transfer along with the key cipher of the text information.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are quickly becoming an essential part of today's modern infrastructure, and it is becoming crucial to consider time synchronisation problems in WSNs. Furthermore, one of the main design issues in WSN time synchronisation is the efficient use of energy at each sensor node to prolong the lifespan of the network. This paper describes a new energy-efficient time protocol based on the spanning tree of the network model graph in a WSN. Three major cases are discussed: 1) time synchronisation using the energy-efficient spanning tree (EST) protocol in a WSN with approximately 300 sensors; 2) an improved EST protocol in large-scale WSNs; 3) an improved EST protocol under weighted graph. Additionally, a series of practical algorithms are proposed in this paper, where both energy and time efficient can be clearly shown through a number of simulated examples along with their comparative results.

QoSNET: An integrated QoS network for routing protocols in large scale wireless sensor networks