SENSORS: Soft Tamper-Proofing with Program Integrity Verification in Wireless Sensor Networks

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Shin abstractSmall low-cost sensor devices, each equipped with limited resources,are networked and used for various critical applications.The nature of these applications may require the underlying sensornetwork to be secure even though it is usually deployed ina harsh, sometimes hostile, and unsupervised environment,and hence, is subject to capture, reverse-engineeringand manipulation.Existing tamper resistance techniques are either hardware-based or intended forenvironments with sufficient computation and communicationresources, but they cannot be used for low-cost (thus resource-limited)sensor devices. This project focuses on the development and evaluation ofa Program-Integrity Verification (PIV) protocol that intermittently verifies integrity of the program code of a sensor device, e.g., wheneverit joins a network or has experienced a long service blockage.The PIV protocol augments sensor devices to make themusable for applications that require high-level security.PIV uses a randomized hash function,by which the algorithm for hash computation on the program codecan be randomly generated whenever the code needs to be verified.By applying this algorithm, the PIV protocol will offer protectionagainst manipulation/reverse-engineering/reprogramming of sensors;provide software-based protection without requiring tamper-resistant hardware;exploit infrequent triggering of verification, thereby notstressing or interfering with normal sensor functions; and assure cryptographic security. The project consists of the following fourclosely-related tasks, Program-Integrity Verification, Key Management, Adaptive Intrusion Detection, and Experimentation and Validation.The goal of the project is the fundamentaladvancement of software-based tamper-resistance techniques.Broader impact is epxected in emergingsensor networks that will play key roles in safety-criticaland homeland security applications such as surveillanceof the physical infrastructure, including buildings and bridges,transportation systems, water supply systems, and power generationand distribution systems.