TACKing Together Efficient Authentication, Revocation, and Privacy in VANETs

Abstract

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) require a mechanism to help authenticate messages, identify valid vehicles, and remove malevolent vehicles. A public key infrastructure (PKI) can provide this functionality using certificates and fixed public keys. However, fixed keys allow an eavesdropper to associate a key with a vehicle and a location, violating drivers' privacy. In this work we propose a VANET key management scheme based on temporary anonymous certified keys (TACKs). Our scheme efficiently prevents eavesdroppers from linking a vehicle's different keys and provides timely revocation of misbehaving participants while maintaining the same or less overhead for vehicle-to-vehicle communication as the current IEEE 1609.2 standard for VANET security.