PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

Lightweight user authentication scheme for roaming service in GLOMONET with privacy preserving.

  • Dongwoo Kang,
  • Hakjun Lee,
  • Youngsook Lee,
  • Dongho Won

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247441
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 2
p. e0247441

Abstract

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With the development of information technology and the Internet, users can conveniently use roaming services without time and space restrictions. This roaming service is initiated by establishing a session key between a home node, which exists in a home network, and a mobile node, which exists in a foreign network. However, in the process of verifying a legitimate user and establishing a session key, various security threats and privacy exposure issues can arise. This study demonstrates that the authentication scheme for the roaming service proposed in the existing Global Mobility Network (GLOMONET) environment has several vulnerabilities and, hence, is impractical. In addition, the scheme does not satisfy the privacy of the session key or user's identity or password. Accordingly, we propose a new lightweight authentication scheme to compensate for these vulnerabilities and secure a high level of privacy, such as non-traceability. In addition, formal and informal analyses are conducted to examine the safety of the proposed scheme. Based on the results of our analyses, we prove that the proposed scheme is highly secure and applicable to the actual GLOMONET environment.