Security Analysis of an Efficient Authentication Scheme for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

As the number of machines increases, the need for a communication channel between machines becomes more and more felt. VANET provides vehicle to infrastructure and vehicle to vehicle communication for weather alerts, control of traffic congestion, and navigation services.Security and performance are two essential issues in VANET applications. Security concerns such as confidentiality, privacy, and authentication of network nodes are crucial issues. In recent years, several protocols have been proposed to meet these security requirements. Most of these schemes are proposed in three categories: Public Key Infrastructure, ID-based, and MAC-based authentication schemes.One of the recently proposed schemes for VANETs is Bayat et al.’s scheme. Unfortunately, the used digital signature in this scheme can be forged. This vulnerability allows an adversary to send invalid messages in a network without detection by authorities. This vulnerability is a severe threat to an authentication problem in this scheme.