ERASMIS: An ECC-based robust authentication protocol suitable for medical IoT systems

Abstract

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) refers to the interconnection of physical devices that transmit and receive data over a network infrastructure. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a key component of this infrastructure, facilitating data exchange through wireless channels. They are widely used in healthcare, transportation, smart home monitoring, and other applications. As IoT networks continue to evolve rapidly, security and privacy have become critical concerns. Security is essential within these systems, and privacy is especially important, as data transmitted over wireless channels can be intercepted, tracked, or tampered with.

In recent years, many authentication protocols have been proposed by researchers and experts. However, some of these protocols lack essential security features and fail to provide robust protection against various active and passive attacks. In this paper, we introduce ERASMIS, an authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) designed specifically for healthcare IoT systems. We explain how ERASMIS ensures security and present both informal and formal proofs of its security. Our formal security analyses, conducted with Real or Random (RoR) model and also tools such as Scyther and ProVerif demonstrate that the proposed protocol is resilient against numerous attacks while being more efficient than comparable schemes, with low computational and communication overhead. Furthermore, we have developed a Python implementation of the proposed protocol to evaluate its performance in real-world scenarios.