Open AccessIdentity‐based access control for pro‐active message's DTN
Author(s) -
SánchezCarmona Adrián,
Robles Sergi,
Borrego Carlos
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
security and communication networks
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1939-0122
pISSN - 1939-0114
DOI - 10.1002/sec.1494
Subject(s) - computer science , access control , computer network , identity (music) , encryption , node (physics) , computer security , routing (electronic design automation) , code (set theory) , distributed computing , physics , structural engineering , set (abstract data type) , acoustics , engineering , programming language
Pro‐active message's delay tolerant networks (DTNs) are based on the usage of mobile code to obtain messages that contain their own routing code. This architecture allows applications to use the same network in different ways. The keystone of this type of heterogeneous network is a collection of contextual and application‐related information that it is stored in every node and accessed by the messages' routing code. Access to that information must be protected in order to make the whole architecture feasible; the operation of the network has to be secure, and attacks of information poisoning have to be avoided. We propose an identity‐based access control system for pro‐active message's DTN based on tools that are available in DTN networks, like symmetric key encryption and hashes. Our system grants confidentiality and integrity to the contextual information and solves the question of messages needing to use distributed information stored in nodes to route properly. The proof of concept of identity‐based access control in a certain kind of application demonstrates the feasibility of the proposal. The comparison between our proposal and other access control systems shows that identity‐based access control is the only system that fits well with the special characteristics of pro‐active message's DTN. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.