General-purpose Identity Hiding Schemes for Ad-hoc Networks

Abstract

Identity disclosure is a security and privacy concern in mobile ad-hoc networks. Previous proposals suggest using anonymous routing protocols. These solutions are limited on certain routing protocols, and cannot be applied to higher layers. In this paper, we propose the requirements of an general-purpose identity hiding scheme, and present schemes based on popular cryptosystems: AES, RSA, and ElGamal. These schemes can be applied in network and above layers. These schemes also overcome the following drawbacks of previous anonymous routing protocols: pair-wise keys, and large amount of pseudonyms. Hence, the proposed schemes are more efficient and applicable.