A Provably Secure Identity Based Authenticated Key Agreement Protocol with Multiple PKG Compatibility for Inter-Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) facilitate the timely dissemination of road traffic information, including early warnings related to road conditions, weather updates, traffic congestion and collisions. The information exchanged in VANETs is crucial for maintaining uninterrupted traffic flow, minimizing road mishaps, expediting emergency services and analyzing potential detours in case of congestion. In order to ensure the legitimacy of the interchanged messages and to preserve confidentiality, it is essential to establish secure authenticated channels among the communicating automotive nodes. Considering the highly dynamic nature of VANETs and the diversity of the participating vehicular nodes, Identity based Authenticated Key Agreement (ID-AKA) protocol in the multiple Private Key Generator (PKG) setting, is an ideal cryptographic technique for securing inter-vehicular communications. We cryptanalyze the existing pairing-free multiple PKG compatible ID-AKA (mPKG-ID-AKA) protocol designed for securing VANETs and prove that the protocol lacks weak Perfect Forward Secrecy (wPFS). Our investigations also reveal that previous attempts to model mPKG-ID-AKA protocols are computation-intensive and provide weaker security guarantees. To this end, we propose an efficient eCK secure mPKG-ID-AKA protocol based on the gap Diffie-Hellman assumption. Experimental analysis suggests that the proposed protocol attains the highest computation efficiency, when compared to the existing mPKG-ID-AKA schemes and is therefore highly suitable for securing inter-vehicular communications. © 2021 - IOS Press. All rights reserved.