Secret key generation from wireless channels
Magnus Sandell · 2024
Wireless communication networks are rapidly expanding, especially in the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (MTM) applications. Although this offers flexibility, mobility and simplicity, there are security challenges which have become a critical concern. While some of these risks are similar to those in wired networks, others are completely new to wireless networks. The most significant one is that the communication medium is open to intruders, who may passively or actively attack the network. An example of the former is eavesdropping (listening to messages communicated by legitimate devices) and examples of the latter are spoofing (introducing malicious messages) and jamming (disturbing the legitimate communication channel). Other security challenges to wireless networks include resource constraints, such as battery life and computational ability. Devices may have limited transmission power or use weak cryptographic mechanisms to save power, making them susceptible to powerful adversaries. Self-configuring heterogeneous networks may have weak lower-layer links that could be a potential breach for the whole system. A direct consequence of these risks is the loss of data confidentiality (providing information to someone not authorised to access it), data integrity (modifying some legitimate information) or denial of service (exhausting resources needed to provide service) attacks. Unsecure wireless networks are also susceptible to attacks that consume network bandwidth or generally degrade network performance.