KERMAN: A Key Establishment Algorithm based on Harvesting Randomness in MANETs

TL;DR

KERMAN is a lightweight key establishment algorithm for MANETs that harvests randomness from routing metadata during route discovery, eliminating the need for costly random number generators and complex key exchange protocols.

Contribution

This paper introduces KERMAN, a novel method for secret key establishment in ad-hoc networks that leverages routing metadata for randomness, simplifying and securing the process.

Findings

KERMAN effectively generates secret keys using routing metadata.

The algorithm requires minimal communication overhead.

It operates efficiently within the route discovery phase of MANETs.

Abstract

Establishing secret common randomness between two or multiple devices in a network resides at the root of communication security. The problem is traditionally decomposed into a randomness generation stage (randomness purity is subject to employing often costly true random number generators) and a key-agreement information exchange stage, which can rely on public-key infrastructure or on key wrapping. In this paper, we propose KERMAN, an alternative key establishment algorithm for ad-hoc networks which works by harvesting randomness directly from the network routing metadata, thus achieving both pure randomness generation and (implicitly) secret-key agreement. Our algorithm relies on the route discovery phase of an ad-hoc network employing the Dynamic Source Routing protocol, is lightweight, and requires minimal communication overhead.