FogSec: A secure and effective mutual authentication scheme for fog computing

Abstract

SummaryAs opposed to cloud servers, fog servers, and fog users may be malicious, so developing a mutual identity‐preserving authentication mechanism between them is a crucial and difficult problem in fog computing. Such a technique must conceal the user's true identity from the adversary; otherwise, the adversary will be able to determine which fog user and fog server are in communication. This article suggests a secure and reliable anonymous mutual authentication system for use at the network's edge between fog users and fog servers. With the aid of the registration authority (RA) in our system, they can verify one another and decide on a new session key that will be used to encrypt messages throughout the session. Fog users don't need to re‐register with RA to wander freely over the network and authenticate to any fog server that is within their range. The proposed technique only needs a small number of symmetric encryption/decryption and one‐way hash functions, making it easy to implement for fog‐user devices with limited resources. The new scheme's performance is evaluated in comparison to the existing one, showing that it is more resilient to various types of assaults (such as known plaintext attacks, man‐in‐the‐middle attacks, session hijacking, etc.). The widely used Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications tool is used to verify the proposed system. The outcomes demonstrate that our approach can safely withstand different attacks and accomplish the desired outcomes. Additionally, the proposed method is tested in real‐world scenarios with the NS3 simulator.