Efficient privacy preserving security protocol for VANETs with sparse infrastructure deployment

Security is of paramount importance for vehicular communications to verify regular updates from authorized vehicles while detecting misleading reports from malicious or malfunctioning on board units (OBUs). This should however be provided without violating the privacy of the users. Using frequently changing pseudonyms for the vehicles is an effective solution to preserve their privacy. However, in current systems the vehicles need to be always connected to the Certification Authority (CA) to receive the pseudonyms. This might be unfeasible due to the sparse infrastructure deployment, especially in the early stage of the technology, that can lead to availability and scalability problems. In this paper, we solve this issue by proposing efficient protocols for authentication, pseudonym generation, message verification and anonymity revocation that do not require permanent contact with the CA. Even in case of network availability, this feature also reduces the communication overhead for the pseudonym generation and revocation list distribution.