Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are used for improving traffic efficiency and road safety. However, VANETs are vulnerable to various attacks from malicious vehicles. Malicious vehicles can disrupt the normal operation of VANET applications by broadcasting bogus event messages that may cause accidents, threatening people's lives. Therefore, the receiver node needs to evaluate the authenticity and trustworthiness of the sender vehicles and their messages before acting. Although several solutions for trust management in VANETs have been proposed to address these issues of malicious vehicles, existing trust management schemes have two main issues. Firstly, these schemes have no authentication components and assume the nodes are authenticated before communicating. Consequently, these schemes do not meet VANET security and privacy requirements. Secondly, existing trust management schemes are not designed to operate in various contexts of VANETs that occur frequently due to sudden variations in the network dynamics, making existing solutions impractical for VANETs. In this paper, we present a novel blockchain-assisted privacy-preserving and context-aware trust management framework that combines a blockchain-assisted privacy-preserving authentication scheme and a context-aware trust management scheme for securing communications in VANETs. The authentication scheme is proposed to enable anonymous and mutual authentication of vehicular nodes and their messages and meet VANET efficiency, security, and privacy requirements. The context-aware trust management scheme is proposed to evaluate the trustworthiness of the sender vehicles and their messages, and successfully detect malicious vehicles and their false/bogus messages and eliminate them from the network, thereby ensuring safe, secure, and efficient communications in VANETs. In contrast to existing trust schemes, the proposed framework can operate and adapt to various contexts/scenarios in VANETs while meeting all VANET security and privacy requirements. According to efficiency analysis and simulation results, the proposed framework outperforms the baseline schemes and demonstrates to be secure, effective, and robust for enhancing vehicular communication security.
With the enhanced interoperability of information among vehicles, the demand for collaborative sharing among vehicles increases. Based on blockchain, the classical consensus algorithms in collaborative IoV (Internet of Vehicle), such as PoW (Proof of Work), PoS (Proof of Stake), and DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake), only consider the node features, which is hard to adapt to the immediacy and flexibility of vehicles. On the other hand, classical consensus algorithms often require mass computing, which undoubtedly increases the communication overhead, resulting in the inability to achieve collaborative IoV under asymmetric networks. Therefore, proposing a low failure rate consensus algorithm that takes into account running time and energy consumption becomes a major challenge in IoV applications. This paper proposes an AI-enabled consensus algorithm with vehicle features, combining vehicle-based metrics and neural networks. First, we introduce vehicle-based metrics such as vehicle online time, performance, and behavior. Then, we propose an integral model and a hierarchical classification method, which combine with a BP neural network to obtain the optimal solution for interconnection. Among them, we also use Informer to predict the future online duration of vehicles, which effectively solves the situation that the primary node vehicle drops off in collaborative IoV. Finally, the experimentations show that the vehicle-based metrics eliminate the problem of the primary node vehicle being offline, which realizes the collaborative IoV considering vehicle features. Meanwhile, it reduces the vehicle network system delay and energy consumption.
The emerging field of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has garnered significant attention due to its potential to revolutionize transportation and mobility. IoV enables the development of innovative services and applications that can enhance the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of transportation systems. However, ensuring secure and reliable communication among different components of an IoV system poses a critical challenge. This study proposes a blockchain-based communication framework for secure and trustworthy IoV applications. The framework utilizes blockchain technology’s decentralization and security features to create secure communication channels between IoV system components, including vehicles, infrastructure, and service providers. An identity management system is also integrated into the framework to authenticate and authorize users and devices, thereby preventing unauthorized access and data breaches. To assess the proposed framework’s effectiveness, real-world IoV scenarios were used to conduct experiments, and the results demonstrate that the framework can provide secure and trustworthy communication for IoV applications. The proposed blockchain-enabled communication framework provides a promising solution for addressing security and trust challenges in IoV communication systems.
Muhammad Umar Majigi, Ismaila Idris, Shafi’i Muhammad Abdulhamid, Andrew A. Uduimoh
The possibility of implementing advanced applications, such as improved driving safety, has increased with the rapid development of vehicular telematics, and existing vehicular services have been enriched through data sharing and analysis between vehicles. This research uses smart contracts and consortium blockchain zero knowledge proof to secure data sharing and storage in vehicular networks. The results indicate that, for message sizes (m), both data_ experiments _2 and 1 produce ciphertext of the same size 157 bits, with the exception of 'gnfuv-temp-exp1-55d487b85b-5g2xh,' which generates ciphertext of 156 bits with the lowest decryption time of 26,865ms and a small decrease in encryption time between 28,620ms and 28,162ms. the proposed model validation shows that the model performed better than the Advanced encryption standard in terms of ciphertext size, encryption time and decryption time in comparison and it satisfies the good and robust blockchain-based zero knowledge proof model for secure data sharing and storage for distributed VANET. The scheme achieves high levels of security while operating with reasonable efficiency, reliability and availability according to numerical results.
Hamza Sohail, Mahmood ul Hassan, M. A. Elmagzoub, Adel Rajab · 9 authors
A vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a technique that uses vehicles with the ability to sense data from the environment and use it for their safety measures. Flooding is a commonly used term used for sending network packets. VANET may cause redundancy, delay, collision, and the incorrect receipt of the messages to their destination. Weather information is one of the most important types of information used for network control and provides an enhanced version of the network simulation environments. The network traffic delay and packet losses are the main problems identified inside the network. In this research, we propose a routing protocol which can transmit the weather forecasting information on demand based on source vehicle to destination vehicles, with the minimum number of hop counts, and provide significant control over network performance parameters. We propose a BBSF-based routing approach. The proposed technique effectively enhances the routing information and provides the secure and reliable service delivery of the network performance. The results taken from the network are based on hop count, network latency, network overhead, and packet delivery ratio. The results effectively show that the proposed technique is reliable in reducing the network latency, and that the hop count is minimized when transferring the weather information.
Ümit Cali, Murat Kuzlu, Onur Elma, Osman Gazi Güçlütürk · 6 authors
With the advancement of green energy technology and rising public and political acceptance, electric vehicles (EVs) have grown in popularity. Electric motors, batteries, and charging systems are considered major components of EVs. The electric power infrastructure has been designed to accommodate the needs of EVs, with an emphasis on bidirectional power flow to facilitate power exchange. Furthermore, the communication infrastructure has been enhanced to enable cars to communicate and exchange information with one another, also known as Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology. V2X is positioned to become a bigger and smarter system in the future of transportation, thanks to upcoming digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Distributed Ledger Technology, and the Internet of Things. However, like with any technology that includes data collection and sharing, there are issues with digital privacy and cybersecurity. This paper addresses these concerns by creating a multi-layer Cyber-Physical-Social Systems (CPSS) architecture to investigate possible privacy and cybersecurity risks associated with V2X. Using the CPSS paradigm, this research explores the interaction of EV infrastructure as a very critical part of the V2X ecosystem, digital privacy, and cybersecurity concerns.
Emanuel Vieira, João Almeida, Joaquim Ferreira, Paulo Bartolomeu
Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) applications, enabled by vehicular communications and vehicle automation technologies, are set to increase traffic safety and efficiency. An important feature of CCAM is the potential to decide and coordinate maneuvers among automated vehicles in a more efficient and secure manner, when compared to human drivers. However, maneuver decision and coordination is a rather complex topic due to the multitude of possible maneuvers and the occasional cooperation failures, as caused by issues derived from the use of wireless communications in the vehicular ecosystem, like packet loss or even misbehaving entities. This work focuses on the latter problem by introducing a secure communication design for the decision of general cooperative maneuvers and the distributed storage of related data for accountability purposes using mechanisms based on distributed ledger technologies, while meeting user and data privacy requirements. We present the VERCO (VERifiable COoperation), a scalable geographical-based multi-layered blockchain architecture able to support the high volume of shared vehicular data in order to enhance the security and accountability of cooperative maneuvers, as well as potentially being able to support other vehicular services. To support this architecture, we also provide a performant communication protocol for the decision and negotiation of cooperative maneuvers, based on a new message: the Verifiable Cooperation Message (VCM). The architecture and communication protocol are analyzed and tested employing hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulations using two ETSI ITS standard compliant on-board units (OBUs) while deciding maneuvers in a lane-merging scenario. To test the scalability of the architecture a roadside unit (RSU) is put under different stress loads using a variable number of simulated vehicles in the same lane-merging scenario. Experimental results show the feasibility of the communication protocol, with an average delay of 34.68 ms, and the lightweightness of the proposed architecture, with an average overhead of only 2.62 ms for two vehicles and less than 6 ms for dozens of vehicles.
Wenbo Ruan, Jia Liu, Yuanfang Chen, M N Islam · 5 authors
The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) enables vehicles to share data that help vehicles perceive the surrounding environment. However, vehicles can spread false information to other IoV nodes; this incorrect information misleads vehicles and causes confusion in traffic, therefore, a vehicular trust model is needed to check the trustworthiness of the message. To eliminate the spread of false information and detect malicious nodes, we propose a double-layer blockchain trust management (DLBTM) mechanism to objectively and accurately evaluate the trustworthiness of vehicle messages. The double-layer blockchain consists of the vehicle blockchain and the RSU blockchain. We also quantify the evaluation behavior of vehicles to show the trust value of the vehicle's historical behavior. Our DLBTM uses logistic regression to accurately compute the trust value of vehicles, and then predict the probability of vehicles providing satisfactory service to other nodes in the next stage. The simulation results show that our DLBTM can effectively identify malicious nodes, and over time, the system can recognize at least 90% of malicious nodes.
Platooning technologies enable trucks to drive cooperatively and automatically, providing benefits including less fuel consumption, greater road capacity, and safety. To establish trust during dynamic platooning formation, ensure vehicular data integrity, and guard platoons against potential attackers in mixed fleet environments, verifying any given vehicle’s identity information before granting it access to join a platoon is pivotal. Besides, due to privacy concerns, truck owners may be reluctant to disclose private vehicular information, which can reveal their business data to untrusted third parties. To address these issues, this is the first study to propose an aggregated zero-knowledge proof and blockchain-empowered system for privacy-preserving identity verification in truck platooning. We provide the correctness proof and the security analysis of our proposed authentication scheme, highlighting its increased security and fast performance. The platooning formation procedure is re-designed to seamlessly incorporate the proposed authentication scheme, including the 1st catch-up and cooperative driving steps. The blockchain performs the role of verifier within the authentication scheme and stores platooning records on its digital ledger to guarantee data immutability and integrity. In addition, the proposed programmable access control policies enable truck companies to define who is allowed to access their platoon records. We implement the proposed system and perform extensive experiments on the Hyperledger platform. The results show that the blockchain can provide low latency and high throughput, the aggregated approach can offer a constant verification time of 500 milliseconds regardless of the number of proofs, and the platooning formation only takes seconds under different strategies. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our design for use in real-world truck platooning.
With the rapid development of Internet of Vehicles (IoV), particularly the introduction of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), vehicles can efficiently share data with one another. However, edge computing nodes are vulnerable to various network attacks, posing security risks to data storage and sharing. Moreover, the presence of abnormal vehicles during the sharing process poses significant security threats to the entire network. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel reputation management scheme, which proposes an improved multi-source multi-weight subjective logic algorithm. This algorithm fuses the direct and indirect opinion feedback of nodes through the subjective logic trust model while considering factors such as event validity, familiarity, timeliness, and trajectory similarity. Vehicle reputation values are periodically updated, and abnormal vehicles are identified through reputation thresholds. Finally, blockchain technology is employed to ensure the security of data storage and sharing. By analyzing real vehicle trajectory datasets, the algorithm is proven to effectively improve the differentiation and detection rate of abnormal vehicles.
Ahmad J. Alkhodair, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos
Due to the enormous amounts of data being generated between users, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are complex Cyber-Physical Systems that necessitate a reliable and safe infrastructure. Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is the term that describes the interconnection for every single node, device, sensor, and actuator that are Internet enabled, whether attached or unattached to vehicles. A single smart vehicle will generate a huge amount of data. Concurrently, it needs an instant response to avoid accidents since vehicles are fast-moving objects. In this work, we explore Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and collect data about consensus algorithms and their applicability to be used in the IoV as the backbone of ITS. Multiple distributed ledger networks are currently in operation. Some are used in finance or supply chains, and others are used for general decentralized applications. Despite the secure and decentralized nature of the blockchain, each of these networks has trade-offs and compromises. Based on the analysis of consensus algorithms, a conclusion has been made to design one that fits the requirements of ITS-IOV. FlexiChain 3.0 is proposed in this work to serve as a Layer0 network for different stakeholders in the IoV. A time analysis has been conducted and shows a capacity of 2.3 transactions per second, which is an acceptable speed to be used in IoV. Moreover, a security analysis was conducted as well and shows high security and high independence of the node number in terms of security level per the number of participants.
Engin Zeydan, Josep Mangues, Şuayb S. Arslan, Yekta Türk
Identity and access management frameworks address data governance and system access rights for users, organizations, and vendors. Emerging identity management models such as Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) that is based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) technology, have emerged to address the challenges associated with centralized authority. The main goal of SSI is to help users self-manage their data shared with services. In this paper, we explore a possible application of the SSI concept to vehicular networks. We propose a new methodology, that is alternative to the conventional blockchain-based SSI, which ensures confidentiality, authentication, and integrity of vehicle users identity and their data. At the end of the paper, we also compare SSI-based and Non-fungible token (NFT)-based blockchain solutions, the challenges and future directions of SSI solutions in the context of vehicular networks.
Sandeep Kumar Arora, Gulshan Kumar, Mustapha Hedabou, El Mehdi Amhoud · 5 authors
Summary A decentralized application runs on the blockchain network without the intervention of a central authority. Transparency in transactions and security in vehicular networks are the issues for central systems. The proposed system uses blockchain‐based smart contracts, which eliminate the requirement for any third‐party verification. Additionally, with signature verification and reduced overhead, smart contracts also help in a fast and secure transaction. This study suggests a trust‐based system paradigm where certificate authority (CA) is employed for vehicle registration. We also propose a blockchain‐based system that provides efficient two‐way authentication and key agreement through encryption and digital signatures. The analysis of the proposed model reveals that it is an efficient way of establishing distributed trust management, which helps in preserving vehicle privacy. The proposed scheme is tested in Automated Validation of Internet Security‐sensitive Protocols (AVISPA), and security parameters verification in Network Simulator 2(NS2) also shows that the proposed scheme is more effective in comparison with existing schemes in terms of authentication cost, storage cost, and overhead.
Mahmoud A. Shawky, Muhammad Usman, David Flynn, Muhammad Ali Imran · 7 authors
Intelligent transportation systems are an emerging technology that facilitates real-time vehicle-to-everything communication. Hence, securing and authenticating data packets for intra- and inter-vehicle communication are fundamental security services in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). However, public-key cryptography (PKC) is commonly used in signature-based authentication, which consumes significant computation resources and communication bandwidth for signatures generation and verification, and key distribution. Therefore, physical layer-based secret key extraction has emerged as an effective candidate for key agreement, exploiting the randomness and reciprocity features of wireless channels. However, the imperfect channel reciprocity generates discrepancies in the extracted key, and existing reconciliation algorithms suffer from significant communication costs and security issues. In this paper, PKC-based authentication is used for initial legitimacy detection and exchanging authenticated probing packets. Accordingly, we propose a blockchain-based reconciliation technique that allows the trusted third party (TTP) to publish the correction sequence of the mismatched bits through a transaction using a smart contract. The smart contract functions enable the TTP to map the transaction address to vehicle-related information and allow vehicles to obtain the transaction contents securely. The obtained shared key is then used for symmetric key cryptography (SKC)-based authentication for subsequent transmissions, saving significant computation and communication costs. The correctness and security robustness of the scheme are proved using Burrows–Abadi–Needham (BAN)-logic and Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) simulator. We also discussed the scheme’s resistance to typical attacks. The scheme’s performance in terms of packet delay and loss ratio is evaluated using the network simulator (OMNeT++). Finally, the computation analysis shows that the scheme saves ∼99% of the time required to verify 1000 messages compared to existing PKC-based schemes.
Open access
Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)
Advanced Authentication Protocols Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Despite the widespread use of radio frequency identification and wireless connectivity such as near field communication in electric vehicles, their security and privacy implications in Ad-Hoc networks have not been well explored. This article provides a data protection assessment of radio frequency electronic system in the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). It is demonstrated that eavesdropping is completely feasible from a passing car, at an approximate distance up to 50 m. Furthermore, our reverse analysis shows that the staticn-bit signatures and messaging can be eavesdropped from a relatively far distance, raising privacy concerns as a vehicles’ movements can be tracked by using the unique IDs of tire pressure sensors. Unfortunately, current protocols do not use authentication, and automobile technologies hardly follow routine message confirmation so sensor messages may be spoofed remotely. To improve the security of TPMS, we suggest a novel ultralightweight mutual authentication for the TPMS registry process in the automotive network. Our experimental results confirm the effectiveness and security of the proposed method in TPMS.
Because of the decentralized trait of the blockchain and the Internet of vehicles, both are very suitable for the architecture of the other. This study proposes a multi-level blockchain framework to secure information security on the Internet of vehicles. The main motivation of this study is to propose a new transaction block and ensure the identity of traders and the non-repudiation of transactions through the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm ECDSA. The designed multi-level blockchain architecture distributes the operations within the intra_cluster blockchain and the inter_cluster blockchain to improve the efficiency of the entire block. On the cloud computing platform, we exploit the threshold key management protocol, and the system can recover the system key as long as the threshold partial key is collected. This avoids the occurrence of PKI single-point failure. Thus, the proposed architecture ensures the security of OBU-RSU-BS-VM. The proposed multi-level blockchain framework consists of a block, intra-cluster blockchain and inter-cluster blockchain. The roadside unit RSU is responsible for the communication of vehicles in the vicinity, similar to a cluster head on the Internet of vehicles. This study exploits RSU to manage the block, and the base station is responsible for managing the intra-cluster blockchain named intra_clusterBC, and the cloud server at the back end is responsible for the entire system blockchain named inter_clusterBC. Finally, RSU, base stations and cloud servers cooperatively construct the multi-level blockchain framework and improve the security and the efficiency of the operation of the blockchain. Overall, in order to protect the security of the transaction data of the blockchain, we propose a new transaction block structure and adopt the elliptic curve cryptographic signature ECDSA to ensure that the Merkle tree root value is not changed and also make sure the transaction identity and non-repudiation of transaction data. Finally, this study considers information security in a cloud environment, and therefore we propose a secret-sharing and secure-map-reducing architecture based on the identity confirmation scheme. The proposed scheme with decentralization is very suitable for distributed connected vehicles and can also improve the execution efficiency of the blockchain.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Jamal Habibi Markani, Abdessamad Amrhar, Jean-Marc Gagné, René Landry
In the next generation modernization plan, the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system plays a pivotal role. However, the ADS-B’s low level of security and its vulnerabilities have raised valid concerns. The main objectives of this paper are to highlight the limitations of legacy ADS-B systems and to assess the feasibility of using Format-preserving (F), Feistel-based encryption (F), with multiple implementation variances (X) (FFX) algorithms, for enhancing ADS-B’s security. The offered solution is implemented in a standard software-defined radio (SDR) ADS-B to be utilized in real-time applications. Furthermore, a new proposed blockchain scheme is used as a secured database to manage the cipher key. The metric of message entropy is used to assess an algorithm’s ability to confuse and diffuse predictable ADS-B messages; correlation and serial correlation of plain data and cipher data are deployed to evaluate the proposed method’s security level. The authors provide both MATLAB simulations and flight test outcomes to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. Based on our security analysis, ADS-B information can be kept confidential through our scheme. The performance evaluation results reveal that the proposed scheme is achievable, compatible, and efficient for the avionics industry.
Electric vehicles (EVs) have rapidly developed over the last decade due to their environmental benefits. As a key component of EVs, electric vehicle chargers are becoming increasingly digital and intelligent. However, due to the vast attack surface and the lack of systematic study, EV chargers and charging management cloud platforms are facing cyber security problems. These problems include weak cryptographic mechanisms, insecure data communication, and malicious firmware attacks. Through specific vulnerabilities, attackers can tamper with the data communication or replay network requests between EV chargers and cloud platforms. It will cause threats such as user-level privacy leakage, power fluctuations in the smart grid, and damage to Electric vehicles, damaging public life and property safety. Given the above, this paper proposes a security protection scheme incorporating blockchain, zero trust, and ShangMi cryptographic (SM) algorithms. The scheme uses Hyperledger Fabric for key management and trust evaluation event storage to guarantee the authenticity, non-repudiation, and tamper-proof of keys and events. In addition, zero trust is applied to secure valuable resources and enforce identity and access management (IAM) for accessing entities. We adopt the dynamic trust evaluation method to assess the trustworthiness of accessing entities in real time to implement dynamic authorization. Furthermore, the SM algorithms SM2, SM3, and SM4 are used to protect data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. Experimental results demonstrate that our scheme can effectively resist replay and tampering attacks, securing data communication between EV chargers and cloud platforms. And the performance of the cryptographic algorithm, blockchain system, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) meets Chinese national and industry standards.
We demonstrate how to leverage Apple's Find My protocol, most well known as the underlying protocol of the AirTag, for arbitrary data-muling and location services. This provides a new "infrastructure-free" deployment, where areas with frequent human activity can take advantage of this zero-cost backhaul network. While there are severe limitations (e.g. no acknowledgement channel back to the sending device), Find My-based networking could still be a reliable backhaul with sufficient transmission redundancy and knowledge of deployment context. Towards that end, we develop TagAlong, a protocol for scalable, efficient data transmission on the Find My network. We implement a proof-of-concept and demonstrate throughput up to 12.5 bytes/sec and up to a 97% data reception rate.
Rabia Khan, Amjad Mehmood, Zeeshan Iqbal, Carsten Maple · 5 authors
Security has been the most widely researched topic, particularly within IoT, and has been considered as the major hurdle in the adoption of different applications of IoT. When it comes to IoV, security is considered as the most inevitable component to ensure a safe and smooth driving experience. CAV is the new era of transportation, integrating intelligence and self-driving capabilities within vehicles and that requires strong security measures to ensure safety. Security alone is not enough. Instead, a complete package including privacy of the vehicles and passengers needs to be added in addition to secure communication. This is because CAVs are under continuous cyber threats and attacks and the most important among them is the DDoS, where a remote attacker can hijack/launch attacks on vehicles remotely. Single point of failure attacks target the centralized trusted body in order to mislead the connected vehicles for personal gains. In this paper, the authors have proposed a secure communication system for CAVs using blockchain, which also ensures the privacy of the vehicle/people. The paper highlights the major components of the proposed system, and its performance is evaluated to check its efficiency against DDoS and Eclipse attacks. The unlinkability and anonymity of the vehicles have been ensured using the zk-SNAKR protocol over Blockchain.
Anand Singh Rajawat, S. B. Goyal, Pradeep Bedi, Chaman Verma · 6 authors
The physical world can be controlled directly over the Internet once a Cyber-Physical 1 System (CPS) infrastructure is established. The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) encompasses Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), and 5G-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to transform traditional transportation into an ITS. This research investigates the option of running a blockchain-driven security assurance model to safeguard intelligent roads and smart vehicles as part of ITS. The proposed model considers a semi-distributed model in blockchain deployment to ensure satisfactory Internet of Vehicles (IoV) service while mining acceptable security assurance. The experimental outcomes on intelligent roads and smart parking management indicate that the proposed model achieves comparably good data delivery and reduced latency, paving the way to an innovative deployment of blockchain technologies in IoV for a dependable and trustworthy ITS.