Authenticated In-Network Programming for Wireless Sensor Networks

Current in-network programming protocols for sensor networks allow an attacker to gain control of the network or disrupt its proper functionality by disseminating malicious code and reprogramming the nodes. We provide a protocol that yields source authentication in the group setting like a public-key signature scheme, only with signature and verification times much closer to those of a MAC. We show how this can be applied to an existing in-network programming scheme, namely Deluge, to authenticate code update broadcasts. Our implementation shows that our scheme imposes only a minimal computation and communication overhead to the existing cost of network programming and uses memory recourses efficiently, making it practical for use in sensor networks.