How to Implement Secure Authentication with the Internet of Things

With the increasing connectivity of modern devices, the need for robust security measures is becoming more and more essential. This Essentials course delves into the intricacies of secure authentication and cryptography, exploring the techniques and technologies crucial for protecting data integrity, confidentiality, authenticity, and ensure data availability.
Related Components | Test Your Knowledge

2. What is Secure Authentication?

In an era where cyber threats and attacks are constantly evolving, the significance of secure authentication cannot be overstated. Secure authentication is a process within the realm of cybersecurity that ensures the legitimacy of users, devices, or systems attempting to access sensitive information or digital resources. The primary goal of secure authentication is to verify the identity of individuals or entities, thereby preventing unauthorized access and protecting valuable data from compromise.

What is Encryption?

In the context of secure authentication, encryption plays perhaps the most important role in safeguarding sensitive information during the process of transmission and storage. It is a fundamental component of cybersecurity that enables data to be converted into a coded format using algorithms and keys, rendering it unreadable to unauthorized parties. With secure authentication, encryption is employed to protect user credentials, personal information, and other sensitive data exchanged between users and systems.

When a user logs in or provides authentication credentials, the associated data is often transmitted over networks, whether it's the internet or an internal network. Without encryption, this information could be intercepted by malicious actors through techniques like eavesdropping or man-in-the-middle attacks. Encryption ensures that even if intercepted, the intercepted data is indecipherable without the corresponding decryption key.

Encryption is used to protect not only login credentials but also the entire communication channel between the user and the system. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, for example, leverage encryption to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data during transmission over the internet.

Classical Cryptography Techniques

Classical cryptographic techniques relied on the concept of "security by obscurity," where the encryption methods were deliberately kept secret, known only to a select few. While effective for secure communication, this method proved challenging to implement on a large scale.

A classical cryptographic system, such as the example depicted in Figure 1, involved the sender and receiver agreeing upon pre-shared encryption/decryption keys, which were sequentially used for message encryption and decryption.

Figure 1: A classical closed-loop cryptographic system

One-time pad, a specific encryption technique, necessitated a pre-shared key of the same size or longer than the message. The term "One-time pad" originally referred to keys on a pad that were used and then destroyed, requiring the sender and receiver to meet in a secure location to exchange a new set of keys once the pre-shared keys were exhausted.

These methods have become obsolete in the face of today's global electronic communication. The need for security now extends to a global scale, where potential interception by individuals with hostile intentions necessitates the adoption of more advanced and robust methods.

3. Authentication and Encryption with the Internet of Things

Encryption is particularly important with the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT). The diverse and interconnected nature of IoT devices brings with it a unique set of challenges and vulnerabilities. Key reasons why encryption is essential in IoT networks include:

• Data Privacy and Confidentiality: IoT devices often collect and transmit sensitive data, ranging from personal information to critical operational data in industrial settings. Encryption ensures that this data remains confidential and private, even if intercepted during transmission or if a device is compromised.
• Secure Communication: Many IoT devices communicate with each other and with central servers over networks. Encryption secures these communications, preventing unauthorized access and eavesdropping. Without encryption, malicious actors could exploit unsecured channels to manipulate data or launch attacks.
• Authentication and Access Control: IoT devices are required to authenticate themselves to establish trust within a network. Encryption is necessary for securing the authentication process, ensuring that only authorized devices can communicate and exchange data.
• Protection Against Tampering: Encryption safeguards the integrity of data transmitted or stored by IoT devices. It prevents malicious actors from tampering with the data, ensuring that the information received by other devices or systems is genuine and unaltered.
• Device Identity Management: Each IoT device should have a unique identity to distinguish it from others in a network. Encryption is essential for managing and securing these device identities, preventing identity spoofing or unauthorized access to the IoT ecosystem.
• Non-repudiation: While a digital signature alone cannot authenticate the sender, the introduction of a digital certificate addresses this by ensuring the legitimacy of both parties' public keys through a trusted third party. This process prevents potential impostors from sending encrypted messages with false public keys and digital signatures.
• Regulatory Compliance: Many industries and regions have specific regulations regarding the privacy and security of data. Encryption helps IoT deployments comply with these regulations by providing a robust security mechanism to protect sensitive information.
• Mitigating Physical Security Risks: IoT devices are often deployed in diverse and physically accessible environments. Encryption helps mitigate risks associated with physical access to devices, ensuring that even if a device is physically compromised, the data stored on it remains secure.
• Building Consumer Trust: In consumer-oriented IoT applications, such as smart homes or wearable devices, encryption is essential for building trust. Encryption is a fundamental element in providing assurance to users that their data is being handled securely.

4. Challenge-Response: Enhancing Authentication Security

While the traditional approach of using passwords remains common, it is increasingly recognized as being vulnerable to sophisticated attacks, such as interception. In response, more advanced techniques, such as the challenge-response method, have emerged to fortify authentication processes.

The challenge-response method can be based on symmetric or asymmetric cryptography. Symmetric cryptography uses the same function and cryptographic key on both server and client sides. Asymmetric cryptography uses different functions and keys on server and client sides. 

Symmetric Cryptography Challenge-Response:

In symmetric cryptography challenge-response, the server and the client share a secret key. The server generates a random challenge, and the client encrypts this challenge using the shared secret key, creating a response. The encrypted response is then sent to the server, which decrypts it using the same secret key. If the decrypted response matches the original challenge, the client is authenticated. A hashing algorithm, a mathematical process of converting data into an unreadable string, is used for the encryption and decryption. A secure hashing algorithm of sufficient complexity must be used to ensure that the decryption cannot be mimicked.

Figure 2: Authentication based on symmetric cryptography

Advantages:

• Efficiency: Symmetric cryptography is computationally more efficient than asymmetric cryptography, making it suitable for scenarios where speed is crucial.
• Key Management: Only one secret key needs to be managed between the server and the device.

Challenges:

• Key Distribution: Securely distributing and managing the shared secret key can be challenging, especially in large-scale systems.

Asymmetric Cryptography Challenge-Response

With asymmetric cryptography challenge-response, the authentication uses a key pair consisting of a public key and a private key. The public key is shared openly, while the private key remains secret. The server sends a challenge to the client; the client encrypts the challenge using the private key, creating a response. The encrypted response is then sent to the server, which decrypts it using the client's public key. If the decrypted response matches the original challenge, the client is authenticated. Commonly used asymmetrical key encryption schemes include RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm).

Figure 3: Asymmetric key authentication

Advantages:

• Key Distribution: Asymmetric cryptography eliminates the need for shared secret keys, simplifying key distribution and management.
• Security: The private key never leaves the server, enhancing security.

Challenges:

• Computational Overhead: Asymmetric cryptography is generally more computationally intensive than symmetric cryptography, which can be a concern in resource-constrained environments.
• Key Length: Longer key lengths are often required for equivalent security, which can impact performance.

In both cases, the challenge-response method adds an extra layer of security to the authentication process, making it more resilient against attacks. The choice between symmetric and asymmetric cryptography depends on factors such as computational efficiency, key management considerations, and the desired level of security.

5. Diving Deeper into the Secure Hashing Algorithms

Unlike encryption, which is a two-way process, hashing is a one-way, non-reversible function that transforms input data into a fixed-length string of characters, typically a hash value. These algorithms generate a unique digital fingerprint for any given input, providing a means to verify data integrity, authenticate information, and securely store passwords. The strength of a hashing algorithm lies in its ability to produce a unique hash value even for the slightest change in input, making it invaluable for tasks such as data verification, digital signatures, and password protection. Some of the more widely used hashing algorithms include SHA-256 and SHA-3.

XOR Logic Operation

Because it is used in most hashing algorithms, it is important to understand how the XOR (exclusive OR) logic operation works in the context of encryption and decryption.

Figure 4: XOR Truth Table and Functionality

Utilizing the properties of XOR, one input can serve as a key for processing data through the other input. For instance, if  represents a single bit of an encryption key, XORing it with a data bit from B flips the bit when A is 1. This operation can be reversed by performing another XOR operation between the encrypted result and the key.

To illustrate this concept, let's take the word "Secret," encrypt it using XOR with a chosen key, and subsequently decrypt it using the same key and XOR function. In the given example, the chosen key is the letter "k," which is converted to binary (01101011) using the ASCII character encoding standard. The word "Secret" is also converted to binary (01010011 01100101 01100011 01110010 01100101 01110100). XORing each letter in "Secret" with the key yields the encrypted value.

To decrypt it, we XOR the encrypted value with the same key, resulting in the restoration of the original "Secret" word.

SHA-256

SHA-256, or Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit, is a widely used cryptographic hash function that belongs to the SHA-2 family of hash functions. It is designed to take an input message and produce a fixed-size (256-bit) hash value, commonly represented as a 64-character hexadecimal number. SHA-256 is employed for various security applications and cryptographic protocols, including digital signatures and certificate generation. The SHA-256 hashing process follows these steps:

1. Message Padding: The input message is padded to ensure its length is a multiple of 512 bits. Padding involves appending a '1' bit followed by zeros, along with the original message length in bits.
2. Dividing the Message: The padded message is divided into blocks of 512 bits.
3. Initial Hash Values: SHA-256 uses eight initial hash values (H0 to H7), derived from the first 32 bits of the fractional parts of the square roots of the first eight prime numbers.
4. Processing Blocks: Each 512-bit block undergoes a series of operations, including bitwise logical functions, modular addition, and rotations. This involves a total of 64 rounds, with different constants and functions applied in each round.
5. Final Hash Value: The final hash value is computed by concatenating the hash values obtained after processing each block. This 256-bit hash is the unique representation of the input message.

SHA-256 has the following properties:

• Collision Resistance: SHA-256 is designed to be collision-resistant, meaning it should be computationally infeasible for two different inputs to produce the same hash value.
• Deterministic: The same input will always produce the same hash value, ensuring consistency in cryptographic applications.
• Fixed Output Size: SHA-256 always produces a fixed-size output of 256 bits, providing a standardized representation.
• Avalanche Effect: A small change in the input results in a substantially different hash output, contributing to the avalanche effect and enhancing security.
• Pre-image Resistance: It should be computationally infeasible to determine the original input message from its hash value.

SHA-256 is used in many modern cryptographic applications because it provides a reliable means of ensuring data integrity and authenticity.

AES

AES, or Advanced Encryption Standard, is a symmetric encryption algorithm widely adopted as a standard for securing sensitive information. It replaces the older Data Encryption Standard (DES) and is recognized for its efficiency, security, and versatility. AES operates on fixed-size blocks of data, and its strength lies in its resistance to various cryptographic attacks. AES encryption works in the following manner:

1. Key Expansion: The initial secret key, known as the encryption key, undergoes an expansion process to generate a set of round keys. These round keys are used in the subsequent encryption and decryption rounds.
2. Initial Round Key Addition: The input data block is combined with the first-round key using a bitwise XOR operation.
3. Rounds: AES operates on multiple rounds (10, 12, or 14 rounds depending on the key size - 128, 192, or 256 bits). Each round involves a series of well-defined operations:
   • SubBytes: Byte substitution using a fixed substitution table (S-box).
   • ShiftRows: Shifting the rows of the state array by varying offsets.
   • MixColumns: A mixing operation that combines the data within columns
   • AddRoundKey: Bitwise XOR of the state with the round key.
4. Final Round: The final round excludes the MixColumns operation to simplify the decryption process.
5. Decryption: The decryption process is essentially the reverse of encryption, involving key addition, inverse ShiftRows, inverse SubBytes, and inverse AddRoundKey operations.

The key features of AES include:

• Symmetric Key Algorithm: AES uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. The security of the system relies on keeping the key secret.
• Key Sizes: AES supports key sizes of 128, 192, and 256 bits. Longer key lengths generally provide stronger security.
• Block Size: AES operates on fixed-size blocks of data, with a standard block size of 128 bits.
• Security: AES has withstood extensive cryptanalysis and is considered secure for widespread use.
• Efficiency: AES is designed for efficiency in both hardware and software implementations, making it suitable for various computing environments.

AES encryption is widely employed in securing communications and data storage. Its standardization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has contributed to its widespread adoption.

RSA Public Key Cryptosystem

The RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) public key cryptosystem is a widely used asymmetric encryption algorithm that enables secure communication and digital signatures. It was first introduced in 1977 by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. RSA relies on the mathematical complexity of certain problems related to the difficulty of factoring the product of large prime numbers.

The following is a summary of the RSA encryption/decryption process.

1. Key Generation: RSA involves the generation of a public key and a private key. The public key consists of a modulus n and an exponent e, while the private key comprises the modulus n and a different exponent d. The modulus n is the product of two large prime numbers, which are kept secret.
2. Key Distribution: The public key is made widely available, while the private key is kept secret. Anyone can use the public key to encrypt messages, but only the holder of the private key can decrypt them.
3. Encryption: To send an encrypted message, the sender obtains the recipient's public key and uses it to encrypt the plaintext message. The encryption is performed using modular exponentiation, resulting in the ciphertext:
   • C ≡ M^e mod n
   • C is the ciphertext, M is the plaintext message, e is the public exponent, and n is the modulus.
4. Decryption: The recipient, who possesses the corresponding private key, decrypts the message using modular exponentiation:
   • M ≡ C^d mod n
   • M is the decrypted message, C is the ciphertext, d is the private exponent, and n is the modulus.

The key characteristics of RSA are as follows:

• Asymmetric Cryptography: RSA uses two different keys for encryption and decryption: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption.
• Key Length: The security of RSA depends on the length of the key, with longer keys providing increased security. Common key lengths are 1024, 2048, and 3072 bits.
• Security: RSA's security is based on the difficulty of factoring the product of two large prime numbers, making it resilient against brute-force and factoring attacks.
• Digital Signatures: RSA can also be used for digital signatures, where the private key is used to sign a message, and the public key is used to verify the signature.

RSA remains a fundamental algorithm in secure communication and digital signatures. Its widespread adoption in various applications, including secure email communication and digital certificate issuance, attests to its enduring importance in the field of modern cryptography.

ECDSA Algorithm

ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) is an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm used for digital signatures. Unlike traditional algorithms, ECDSA is based on the mathematical properties of elliptic curves over finite fields and offers the same level of security as traditional algorithms with shorter key lengths.

ECDSA works in this process:

1. Key Generation: The first step involves the generation of a pair of asymmetric keys: a private key (d) and a corresponding public key (Q). The public key is derived from the private key and is associated with a specific elliptic curve.
2. Signature Generation: To create a digital signature for a message (m), the signer computes a unique value called the nonce (k), which must be kept secret and should be unique for each signature. The signer then calculates the signature components r and s using the private key and the message:
   • r ≡ (x(k⋅G)) mod p
   • s ≡ k⁻¹⋅(H(m) + d⋅r) mod p
   • Here, G is the base point of the elliptic curve, x and y are the coordinates of a point on the curve, p is the order of the curve, and H(m) is a hash of the message.
3. Signature Verification: The verifier, who possesses the signer's public key and the signature, can verify the authenticity of the message. The verifier computes w, the modular multiplicative inverse of s, and then calculates u₁ and u₂:
   • w ≡ s⁻¹ mod p
   • u₁ ≡ H(m)⋅w mod p
   • u₂ ≡ r⋅w mod p
   • The verifier then computes a point U on the elliptic curve using u₁ and u₂ and checks whether U matches the signer's public key Q. If U matches Q, the signature is valid.

The most important distinctions of ECDSA are:

• Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC): ECDSA operates on elliptic curves, providing strong security with shorter key lengths compared to traditional algorithms.
• Shorter Key Lengths: Due to the efficiency of ECC, ECDSA can achieve the same level of security with shorter key lengths compared to other algorithms like RSA.
• Resource Efficiency: ECDSA is particularly well-suited for resource-constrained environments, making it a preferred choice for applications like IoT devices.
• Secure Digital Signatures: ECDSA ensures the authenticity and integrity of digital signatures, making it widely used in secure communication and authentication protocols.

ECDSA is used in a wide variety of security-critical applications, including secure communication protocols, digital certificates, and blockchain technologies. Its efficiency and strong security make it a crucial component in modern cryptographic systems.

6. Security ICs for Challenge-Response Authentication

When designing hardware that requires secure authentication, security ICs can simplify the process by providing built-in cryptographic functions with strong protection of keys. Analog Devices offers a variety of products that support secure authentication, including secure authenticators and secure elements.

Secure Authenticators: ICs based on SHA-256 support symmetric cryptography authentication, while ECDSA-based ICs leverage a private/public key pair for asymmetric cryptography authentication. Alongside cryptographic engines, these ICs are equipped with onboard EEPROM memory. This configurable memory serves the purpose of storing authenticated user data, including information such as sensor calibration details.

Secure Elements: Analog Devices’ secure Elements support both symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, providing hardware acceleration for SHA, RSA, ECDSA, and AES algorithms, in addition to a full cryptography library. Their comprehensive cryptography functions enable them to handle a wide range of authentication schemes. The secure boot and secure update guarantees the authenticity of the firmware. Additionally, they feature configurable security policies, TLS protocol, and x.509 certificates management that simplify the implementation of complete security for IoT devices.

7. Glossary

• Asymmetric Cryptography: A cryptographic system using a pair of keys (public and private) to encrypt and decrypt data, providing secure communication between parties without a shared secret.
• Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user, system, or entity, typically through credentials like passwords or digital certificates.
• Certificate: A digital document used to verify the identity of an entity and enable secure communication, often issued by a third-party Certificate Authority (CA).
• Digital Signature: A cryptographic technique that associates a sender's identity with a message, providing integrity and authentication to the recipient.
• Encryption: The process of converting plain text into ciphertext using an algorithm and a key, ensuring secure communication and data protection.
• Non-repudiation: The assurance that a party cannot deny the authenticity or origin of a message or transaction, often achieved through digital signatures.
• Private Keys: In asymmetric cryptography, the confidential key kept secret by an individual or entity to decrypt messages encrypted with the corresponding public key.
• Public Keys: In asymmetric cryptography, the key shared openly to encrypt messages, complementing the private key for secure communication.
• Symmetric Cryptography: A cryptographic system using a single shared key for both encryption and decryption, commonly faster than asymmetric cryptography but requiring secure key distribution.

MAX66301 Deep Cover Secure Authenticator

Buy Now

DS28E25 Deep Cover Secure Authenticator

Buy Now

DS28C36 Deep Cover Secure Authenticator

Buy Now

DS28C36 Deep Cover Secure Authenticator

Buy Now

DS28C36EVKit Authentication Security

Buy Now

DS28E30 DeepCover Secure Authenticator, ECDSA

Buy Now

DS28E30EVKit Evaluation Kit

Buy Now

MAXQ1065 Cryptographic Controller

Buy Now

MAXQ1065GTC+ Evaluation Board

Buy Now

Test Your Knowledge

Security 1

Complete our Essentials: Security course, rate the document, take the quiz, and leave your feedback to earn this badge.

Are you ready to demonstrate your knowledge about cyber authentication? Then take a quick 10-question multiple choice quiz to see how much you've learned from this module.

To earn the Essentials Security 1 Badge, read through the learning module and attain 100% in the quiz.

In partnership with