[formula omitted]: A blockchain-based secure access control management for the Internet of Things

To develop access control mechanisms, particularly in terms of maintaining effective and secure access control within Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Whereas the sufficient use must be made of blockchain-based access control technology. This is because of the sheer volume of connected devices and the subsequent increase in transactions. This can negatively impact the performance and responsiveness of the networks. Thus, this article proposes a comprehensive approach that evaluates the requester’s reputation with respect to regulating access requests for IoT resources. The proposed approach combines fuzzy reputation with a decay algorithm. It then calculates the quantitative reputation value for each IoT user. This considers multiple variables, such as the Access Request Rate, frequency of requests, etc. This new reputation value serves as the basis for access-control decisions. Extensive simulations and experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. For the simulation, we used a single-board Raspberry Pi. We also used a hybrid blockchain network environment comprising Geth and Hyperledger Fabric. We then analyzed and compared the performance of the proposed framework with that of the existing approaches. The results demonstrated that compared to the mathematical mechanism, the framework provides improved access control in IoT networks. The fuzzy-based reputation framework captures the dynamic nature of IoT environments, and effectively identifies trustworthy and malicious devices, whereas the decay algorithm reflects the most recent user behavior.

In this disseration we propose semi-automated top-down policy engineering approaches for attribute-based access control (ABAC) development. Further, we propose a hybrid ABAC policy engineering approach to combine the benefits and address the shortcomings of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. In particular, we propose three frameworks: (i) ABAC attributes extraction, (ii) ABAC constraints extraction, and (iii) hybrid ABAC policy engineering. Attributes extraction framework comprises of five modules that operate together to extract attributes values from natural language access control policies (NLACPs); map the extracted values to attribute keys; and assign each key-value pair to an appropriate entity. For ABAC constraints extraction framework, we design a two-phase process to extract ABAC constraints from NLACPs. The process begins with the identification phase which focuses on identifying the right boundary of constraint expressions. Next is the normalization phase, that aims at extracting the actual elements that pose a constraint. On the other hand, our hybrid ABAC policy engineering framework consists of 5 modules. This framework combines top-down and bottom-up policy engineering techniques to overcome the shortcomings of both approaches and to generate policies that are more intuitive and relevant to actual organization policies. With this, we believe that our work takes essential steps towards a semi-automated ABAC policy development experience.

We describe a method that centrally manages Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) policies and locally computes and enforces decisions regarding those policies for protection of resource repositories in host systems using their native Access Control List (ACL) mechanisms. The method is founded on the expression of an ABAC policy that conforms to the access control rules of an enterprise and leverages the ABAC policy expression by introducing representations of local host repositories into the ABAC policy expression as objects or object attributes. Repositories may be comprised of individual files, directories, or other resources that require protection. The method further maintains a correspondence between the ABAC representations and repositories in local host systems. The method also leverages an ability to conduct policy analytics in such a way as to formulate ACLs for those representations in accordance with the ABAC policy and create ACLs on repositories using the ACLs of their corresponding representations. As the ABAC policy configuration changes, the method updates the ACLs on affected representations and automatically updates corresponding ACLs on local repositories. Operationally, users attempt to access resources in local host systems, and the ABAC policy is enforced in those systems in terms of their native ACLs.

Access control policies are crucial for establishing a secure access control system and are fundamentally based on access control models such as attribute-based access control (ABAC). Moreover, the execution of business process instances is generally recorded within an event log. It is essential to ensure conformance with ABAC policies for the event log at the time of post-execution. To conduct conformance testing of ABAC policies in business process event logs, formalizing these ABAC policies is necessary. However, the formalization is typically carried out manually, which leads to inefficiencies, low maintainability, a high likelihood of errors, and difficulty in detecting the errors. Also, there has been a notable lack of an access control metamodel to support the formalization and conformance testing of ABAC policies, as well as insufficient attention to constructing ABAC policies from existing process logs. This paper presents a model-driven workflow for significantly automating the formalization and conformance testing of ABAC policies in process logs. By leveraging a novel ABAC metamodel and its reusable patterns, the approach addresses the aforementioned issues, demonstrating effectiveness through experiments on a real-world process log.

In this paper, a blockchain-based data sharing and access control system is proposed, for communication between the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The proposed system is intended to overcome the issues related to trust and authentication for access control in IoT networks. Moreover, the objectives of the system are to achieve trustfulness, authorization, and authentication for data sharing in IoT networks. Multiple smart contracts such as Access Control Contract (ACC), Register Contract (RC), and Judge Contract (JC) are used to provide efficient access control management. Where ACC manages overall access control of the system, and RC is used to authenticate users in the system, JC implements the behavior judging method for detecting misbehavior of a subject (i.e., user). After the misbehavior detection, a penalty is defined for that subject. Several permission levels are set for IoT devices’ users to share services with others. In the end, performance of the proposed system is analyzed by calculating cost consumption rate of smart contracts and their functions. A comparison is made between existing and proposed systems. Results show that the proposed system is efficient in terms of cost. The overall execution cost of the system is 6,900,000 gas units and the transaction cost is 5,200,000 gas units.

Access control policies are dynamic in nature, and therefore require frequent updates to synchronize with the latest organizational security requirements. As these updates are handled, it is important that all user access requests be answered contemporaneously and correctly without any interruption or delay. In this paper, considering the context of Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC), we propose an approach that is capable of immediately materializing any update to the policy and ensuring that it is taken into account for any subsequent access requests. One possibility is to update the policy based on the incoming changes through ABAC policy mining techniques. However, it turns out that no existing mining approach can offer correct enforcement of policies when access requests are entertained during the updates. We provide a formal proof for this surprising result and then propose an approach called δwOP that does not suffer from this problem. Essentially, δwOP keeps track of the needed information from updates and uses this in conjunction with the existing ABAC policy rules to make access decisions. We present the complexity analysis as well as a comprehensive experimental evaluation to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach for different types of changes.

Internet of Things (IoT) networks are being designed to connect billions of sensors/devices for an application-specific environment to provide services and carry out special tasks. It enables the virtual connection of the real-world physical devices with Internet cyberspace. While, there is an exponentially growing trend in the use of IoT technology for diverse applications such as smart agriculture, smart industries, smart hospitals, smart homes, etc., there are pressing design issues which affect the IoT network performance in the long run, for example, replacement of batteries for increasing the lifetime of devices to maintain the network longevity. To tackle this challenge, various wireless powered-based energy transfer paradigms were proposed over time. Backscatter communication (BackCom) is likewise one of the energy-efficient solutions proposed, which can satisfy the stringent green communication aspects of IoT networks. To achieve massive connectivity in BackCom-enabled IoT network, selecting a suitable multiple access scheme is also a crucial part. Most multiple access schemes proposed for BackCom systems are based on frequency or timeslots sharing techniques. Multiple access techniques proposed for BackCom IoT system can reap the gain of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) principle. In NOMA, multiple end nodes (ENs) of sensors network is served in the same resource block, thereby, increasing the spectrum efficiency of BackCom IoT system. In this chapter, we discuss the prospects of backscatter technique with application of NOMA for green communication in IoT network.

With rapid advancements in the technology, almost all the devices around are becoming smart and contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) network. When a new IoT device is added to the network, it is important to verify the authenticity of the device before allowing it to communicate with the network. Hence, access control is a crucial security mechanism that allows only the authenticated node to become the part of the network. An access control mechanism also supports confidentiality, by establishing a session key that accomplishes secure communications in open public channels. Recently, blockchain has been implemented in access control protocols to provide a better security mechanism. The foundation of this survey article is laid on IoT, where a detailed description on IoT, its architecture and applications is provided. Further, various security challenges and issues, security attacks possible in IoT and their countermeasures are also provided. We emphasize on the blockchain technology and its evolution in IoT. A detailed description on existing consensus mechanisms and how blockchain can be used to overpower IoT vulnerabilities is highlighted. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive description on access control protocols. The protocols are classified into certificate-based, certificate-less and blockchain-based access control mechanisms for better understanding. We then elaborate on each use case like smart home, smart grid, health care and smart agriculture while describing access control mechanisms. The detailed description not only explains the implementation of the access mechanism, but also gives a wider vision on IoT applications. Next, a rigorous comparative analysis is performed to showcase the efficiency of all protocols in terms of computation and communication costs. Finally, we discuss open research issues and challenges in a blockchain-envisioned IoT network.

The rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled smart home environments has amplified the need for robust, scalable, and context-aware access control mechanisms. Traditional Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) models offer distinct advantages such as hierarchical simplicity and contextual granularity, respectively, yet exhibit critical limitations when deployed in isolation. To address these constraints, this study proposes and implements a discrete, hybrid RBAC–ABAC access control framework, engineered as a smart contract on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), to ensure a secure, decentralized model for managing access to IoT resources. The framework leverages blockchain’s inherent strengths cryptographic integrity, immutable message digests, and tamper-resistant audit trails to reinforce data confidentiality and policy enforcement. Validated on a real-world testbed comprising ESP32-based IoT devices, a Raspberry Pi gateway, and a blockchain backend, the proposed system demonstrates enhanced resilience and trust. Quantitative evaluations benchmark the hybrid model against standalone RBAC and ABAC mechanisms across key metrics, including gas consumption, access latency, access decision accuracy, and scalability. The results indicate the hybrid model achieves superior accuracy (97.2%) and scalability (supporting 50 concurrent users and 30 devices), with moderate gas usage (15,000 gwei) and acceptable latency (1.8 seconds). Furthermore, the use of laser-secure transaction protocols and cryptographic primitives within the smart contract enhances the protection of access rights and resource interactions. This hybrid smart contract architecture not only bridges the gap between theoretical access control models and practical blockchain deployments but also sets a foundation for adaptive, secure, and decentralized policy enforcement in next-generation smart homes, particularly in resource-constrained environments.

Wireless communication networks are highly prone to security threats. The major applications of wireless communication networks are in military, business, healthcare, retail, and transportations. These systems use wired, cellular, or adhoc networks. Wireless sensor networks, actuator networks, and vehicular networks have received a great attention in society and industry. In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has received considerable research attention. The IoT is considered as future of the internet. In future, IoT will play a vital role and will change our living styles, standards, as well as business models. The usage of IoT in different applications is expected to rise rapidly in the coming years. The IoT allows billions of devices, peoples, and services to connect with others and exchange information. Due to the increased usage of IoT devices, the IoT networks are prone to various security attacks. The deployment of efficient security and privacy protocols in IoT networks is extremely needed to ensure confidentiality, authentication, access control, and integrity, among others. In this paper, an extensive comprehensive study on security and privacy issues in IoT networks is provided.

The environmental impacts that are associated with the interconnected sensor devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) network are minimized with the utilization of green communication. This is because, when the IoT devices tend to grow, the IoT system becomes more prone to issues regarding the utilization of resources, sustainability, and energy consumption within the communication system. Tuning the communication protocols, lowering the IoT device’s energy usage rate, and establishing an effective technique for the transmission of data are performed. This is achieved by the green communication technique, which aids in the establishment of significant energy savings in the IoT network. For devices with limited power sources, the green communication technology offers an extended battery life. Despite the enormous potential of IoT technology, a number of obstacles need to be overcome, including those related to load balancing, security, storage, privacy, energy management, and device heterogeneity. In response to the challenges posed by conventional models, an innovative solution for the selection of Cluster Head (CH) using a hybrid approach is devised here. The energy consumption of sensor nodes is influenced by various factors, such asCH load, temperature, distance, residual energy, the number of alive nodes, delay, and so on. To address these challenges in IoT networks, a hybrid approach that combines the Squid Game Optimizer (SGO) and the Artificial Gorilla Troops Optimizer (AGTO) for the optimal selection of CH is suggested. The implemented approach is named Hybrid Squid Game with Artificial Gorilla Troops Optimizer (HSG-AGTO). This approach aims to optimize the above-mentioned factors and overcome energy consumption challenges in IoT networks. The effectiveness of the model is validated, and the results demonstrate the superior performance of the suggested model.

A decentralized framework for device authentication and data security in the next generation internet of medical things

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) is increasingly becoming popular due to its dynamic, flexible, portable, and scalable nature. Under ABAC, security policies (ABAC rules) are stated in terms of the attributes of the subject, the object and the environment. A subject is granted access to an object if their respective attribute values are satisfied against a set of ABAC rules. Typically hierarchical relationships exist among the subjects as well as the objects, where more specific subjects (objects) inherit the attributes from the general ones. As such, if a subject is allowed access to a general object, that subject is allowed to access all of its sub-types. This has been the general understanding and current ABAC enforcement and policy mining approaches follow this approach. However, in this article, we argue that the general understanding of the semantics of the ABAC is not always appropriate. Indeed, under certain semantics, the specific data may be more sensitive than that of its general counterpart. In that situation, if a subject is allowed access to a general type, it should not be allowed access to its sub-type, which is contrary to the current understanding and implementation. This paper is the first attempt in the literature to distinguish these two different ABAC semantics arising from the different semantics of object attributes themselves. We present concrete examples of these two semantics and demonstrate what can go wrong - both anecdotally as well as empirically - if one ignores the underlying semantics and inappropriately uses the existing enforcement and mining algorithms. We then present how existing algorithms can be modified so that no misconfigurations arise and security is ensured.

Internet of Things (IoT) has created huge vibes in the technology arena. It has been pivotal in providing cutting-edge solutions in diversified fields. Few applications include smart homes, smart cities, medical, transport and logistics. IoT provides real-time data exchange through wired or wireless networks with no standards being developed to regulate the flow of information within system. As such, the security and access control in the IoT has become an issue of prominence. Now days, researchers understood the potentiality of the Blockchain (BC) in context with the security and authentication. More specifically the decentralized nature of BC makes it apt for integration with the IoT networks. In this paper, we propose a model that makes use of the blockchain concept to bridle the security and authentication problems in the IoT network. We consider various factors that effect this integration of blockchain and IoT. Our investigations conclude that this hybrid model is powerful and can provide significant transformations in building novel applications across distributed platforms.

The current access control of IoT devices adopts the traditional method of centralized control, which leads to the shortcomings of single point of failure and low efficiency of the entire system. Due to the increasing amount of data generated by the Internet of Things network and the more complex data structure, the traditional access control system has exposed the problem of insufficient security when communicating. Based on the characteristics of blockchain decentralization, non-tampering, and programmable Hyperledger, an attribute-based access control mechanism combining blockchain with the Internet of Things is proposed to realize dynamic changes to the access control strategy and ensure the access control of the Internet of Things Safety and reliability.