Authentication of Queries in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: AQF protocol is a novel approach to authenticate queries in wireless sensor networks to avoid that anybody can inject fake queries in to WSN and likewise to avoid modification of legitimate queries by adversary. Because in any sensor network, sensor nodes are distributed in a width geographical area, an adversary can get a physical access to some sensor nodes and use them to inject some fake queries or to change some of forwarded quires into the network. AQF will use a probabilistic algorithm for finding and stopping illegitimate queries before they can reach to their destination. Duplicate keys between sensor nodes make it a bit easier for adversary to guess and generate a fake query. Because AQF use a random function to assign encryption keys, there is always a possibility to have duplicate keys during generating a query or checking the legitimacy of forwarded queries. Segment base version of AQF which we proposed use a segmentation method to distributed cryptographic keys between sensor nodes instead of using a random way. With this method, there is no chance to have duplicate keys in sensor network. This version has a better performance for detecting fake queries and it does not need more resources in comparison with basic version.