Modified access polynomial based self-healing key management schemes with broadcast authentication and enhanced collusion resistance in wireless sensor networks

Though lots of research results about self-healing key management under unreliable links have been proposed, there are still some shortcomings, such as the inefficiency of broadcasts, lack of broadcast authentication, limited sessions for key issues, disastrous risks of access polynomials, and the vulnerability of collusion attacks. In this paper, we propose two modified access polynomial based self-healing key management schemes with broadcast authentication and enhanced collusion resistance. First, two kinds of attacks are introduced to break the security of access polynomials. Then, a modified security model is given, and collusion resistance capability is redefined from the perspective of session interval from node revocation to node addition, which does not depend on the number of collusive nodes. Next, based on sliding window and modified access polynomial, Sch-I and Sch-II are proposed to achieve the security and tolerate packet losses, which allow pairwise keys between member nodes and group manager to be updated dynamically. Finally, theoretical analysis validates that the proposed schemes have δ self-healing capability, any-wise forward security and backward security, and enhanced collusion resistance capability, and can also avoid the flaws of access polynomials and reduce the resource consumption. Compared with existing schemes, they are quite suitable for practical applications. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.