LASeR: Lightweight and secure remote user authentication protocol for Internet of Drones

Abstract

The Internet of Drones has emerged as a new paradigm in academia and industry due to its clear advantages in multiple domains, including the military, smart cities, smart agriculture, and more recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote users are increasingly eager to access real-time information collected by drones in specific areas. However, the wireless communication used for information exchange between remote users and drones is vulnerable to various security challenges due to its open nature. Moreover, drones are constrained by limited energy and resources, which hinders the effective use of traditional cryptographic methods that involve high computational and communication costs. To address these challenges in IoD (Internet of Drones) environments, we propose a novel lightweight authenticated key agreement protocol, named LASeR, which ensures secure exchanges between users and drones. LASeR relies exclusively on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), bit-wise XOR operation, and one-way hash functions, thereby achieving a lightweight design. Our protocol not only verifies the authenticity of the user but also establishes a session key between the user and drone for encrypted communications. Security evaluations demonstrate that LASeR is resilient against various security attacks and meets essential security requirements, notably forward and backward secrecy. Furthermore, we show that LASeR imposes significantly lower computational and communication costs compared to other relevant protocols.