Sybil attack prevention through identity symmetric scheme in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are a subset of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). They are deployed to introduce the ability of inter-communication among vehicles in order to guarantee safety and provide services for people while driving. VANETs are exposed to many types of attacks like denial of service, spoofing, ID disclosure and Sybil attacks. In this paper, a novel lightweight approach for preventing Sybil attack in VANETs is proposed. The presented protocol scheme uses symmetric key encryption and authentication between Road Side Units (RSUs) and vehicles on the road so that no malicious vehicle could gain more than one identity inside the network. This protocol does not need managers for Road Side Units (RSUs) or Certification Authority (CA) and uses minimum amount of messages exchanged with RSU making the scheme efficient and effective.