Adaptive Group-based Zero Knowledge Proof-Authentication Protocol (AGZKP-AP) in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a lightweight, adaptive zero-knowledge proof authentication protocol for VANETs that balances user privacy, resource use, and security, including privacy revocation for law enforcement.

Contribution

It presents a novel, flexible ZKP-based authentication scheme enabling privacy levels and resource trade-offs, with a distributed privilege control and revocation mechanism.

Findings

Supports multiple privacy levels based on service needs

Reduces resource consumption compared to traditional methods

Includes a privacy revocation mechanism for law enforcement

Abstract

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are a particular subclass of mobile ad hoc networks that raise a number of security challenges, notably from the way users authenticate the network. Authentication technologies based on existing security policies and access control rules in such networks assume full trust on Roadside Unit (RSU) and authentication servers. The disclosure of authentication parameters enables user's trace-ability over the network. VANETs' trusted entities (e.g. RSU) can utilize such information to track a user traveling behavior, violating user privacy and anonymity. In this paper, we proposed a novel, light-weight, Adaptive Group-based Zero Knowledge Proof-Authentication Protocol (AGZKP-AP) for VANETs. The proposed authentication protocol is capable of offering various levels of users' privacy settings based on the type of services available on such networks. Our scheme is based on the Zero-Knowledge-Proof (ZKP) crypto approach with the support of trade-off options. Users have the option to make critical decisions on the level of privacy and the amount of resources usage they prefer such as short system response time versus the number of private information disclosures. Furthermore, AGZKP-AP is incorporated with a distributed privilege control and revoking mechanism that render user's private information to law enforcement in case of a traffic violation.