READ: Resource efficient authentication scheme for digital twin edge networks

In recent vigorous developments, digital twin edge networks (DITEN) have emerged as a network paradigm to improve network communication efficiency. Given that Web 3.0 technologies promise secure decentralized data storage and effective information exchange, it is feasible to construct a wireless edge intelligence-enabled Web 3.0 physical infrastructure through DITEN. However, DITEN encounters various security threats related to communication and authentication, and establishing a secure and cost-effective authentication scheme for confidential access to physical entities poses a significant challenge. To tackle this issue, in this article, we introduce READ, a provably secure multi-factor user authentication scheme tailored for DITEN in industrial applications. Using designed ASCON cryptography primitive cipher suite, physical unclonable functions, extended Chebyshev chaotic maps, one-way secure collision-resistant hash functions, and lightweight bitwise exclusive-or operations, READ enables mutual authentication and session key negotiation among mobile users, smart gateways, and smart industrial devices. Rigorous security assessments, conducted through the real-or-random (ROR) model, the automated validation of internet security-sensitive protocols and applications (AVISPA) simulation tool, and heuristic informal security analysis, confirm that READ meets all 13 security evaluation criteria. Furthermore, compared to other seven advanced multi-factor user authentication schemes, READ excels in security and efficiency, making it ideal for practical multi-factor user authentication scenarios.