Is link signature dependable for wireless security?

A fundamental assumption of link signature based security mechanisms is that the wireless signals received at two locations separated by more than half a wavelength are essentially uncorrelated. However, it has been observed that in certain circumstances (e.g., with poor scattering and/or a strong line-of-sight (LOS) component), this assumption is invalid. In this paper, a Correlation ATtack (CAT) is proposed to demonstrate the potential vulnerability of the link signature based security mechanisms in such circumstances. Based on statistical inference, CAT explicitly exploits the spatial correlations to reconstruct the legitimate link signature from the observations of multiple adversary receivers deployed in vicinity. Our findings are verified through theoretical analysis, well-known channel correlation models, and experiments on USRP platforms and GNURadio.

[1]  Andreas F. Molisch,et al.  Wireless Communications , 2005 .

[2]  Aggelos Kiayias,et al.  Robust key generation from signal envelopes in wireless networks , 2007, CCS '07.

[3]  G. Grimmett,et al.  Probability and random processes , 2002 .

[4]  Peng Ning,et al.  Authenticating Primary Users' Signals in Cognitive Radio Networks via Integrated Cryptographic and Wireless Link Signatures , 2010, 2010 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

[5]  Aaas News,et al.  Book Reviews , 1893, Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal.

[6]  Wenyuan Xu,et al.  Securing wireless systems via lower layer enforcements , 2006, WiSe '06.

[7]  J. D. Parsons,et al.  Crosscorrelation between the envelopes of 900 MHz signals received at a mobile radio base station site , 1986 .

[8]  Andrea Goldsmith,et al.  Wireless Communications , 2005, 2021 15th International Conference on Advanced Technologies, Systems and Services in Telecommunications (TELSIKS).

[9]  Balaji Raghothaman,et al.  Closed-form expressions for the correlation coefficient of directive antennas impinged by a multimodal truncated Laplacian PAS , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

[10]  Sneha Kumar Kasera,et al.  High-Rate Uncorrelated Bit Extraction for Shared Secret Key Generation from Channel Measurements , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.

[11]  Sneha Kumar Kasera,et al.  Advancing wireless link signatures for location distinction , 2008, MobiCom '08.

[12]  H. Vincent Poor,et al.  An Introduction to Signal Detection and Estimation , 1994, Springer Texts in Electrical Engineering.

[13]  Joseph M. Kahn,et al.  Fading correlation and its effect on the capacity of multielement antenna systems , 2000, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[14]  W.C.-Y. Lee.  Effects on Correlation Between Two Mobile Radio Base-Station Antennas , 1973, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[15]  Michele Zorzi,et al.  Correlation in diversity systems with Rayleigh fading, shadowing, and power capture , 1995, Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications.

[16]  Peng Ning,et al.  Enhanced wireless channel authentication using time-synched link signature , 2012, 2012 Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM.

[17]  A. Molisch,et al.  Unified channel model for mobile radio systems with smart antennas , 1998 .

[18]  Wade Trappe,et al.  Radio-telepathy: extracting a secret key from an unauthenticated wireless channel , 2008, MobiCom '08.

[19]  Joseph M. Kahn,et al.  Fading correlation and its effect on the capacity of multi-element antenna systems , 1998, ICUPC '98. IEEE 1998 International Conference on Universal Personal Communications. Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.98TH8384).

[20]  Sneha Kumar Kasera,et al.  Robust location distinction using temporal link signatures , 2007, MobiCom '07.

[21]  W. C. Jakes,et al.  Microwave Mobile Communications , 1974 .

[22]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Effects of multipath angular spread on the spatial cross-correlation of received voltage envelopes , 1999, 1999 IEEE 49th Vehicular Technology Conference (Cat. No.99CH36363).

[23]  Eyal de Lara,et al.  Ensemble: cooperative proximity-based authentication , 2010, MobiSys '10.

[24]  Ali Abdi,et al.  A space-time correlation model for multielement antenna systems in mobile fading channels , 2002, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[25]  J. H. Winters,et al.  Effect of fading correlation on adaptive arrays in digital mobile radio , 1994 .

[26]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Wireless communications - principles and practice , 1996 .

[27]  Donald C. Cox,et al.  Correlation analysis based on MIMO channel measurements in an indoor environment , 2003, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[28]  Aggelos Kiayias,et al.  On passive inference attacks against physical-layer key extraction? , 2011, EUROSEC '11.