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A novel blockchain-enabled zero-trust-based authentication scheme in power IoT environments

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Abstract

The distributed authentication of a large number of resource-constrained power terminal devices (PTDs) is crucial for ensuring the security of the power IoT communication. However, existing solutions are inadequate in terms of security (such as vulnerability to single point failures or insider attacks) and communication costs, which do not meet the requirements of the power IoT environment. Therefore, we propose a zero-trust-based mutual authentication scheme in cloud-edge-end collaboration power IoT environment based on blockchain technology. The proposed solution involves deploying a distributed multi-point zero-trust engine around dense PTDs to collect real-time identity information. Through the maintenance of an alliance blockchain, the edge server securely shares and traces identity information, preventing tampering and effectively blocking threats related to lost terminals during authentication. Additionally, a lightweight ECC key management scheme ensures the security of authentication information. The proposed scheme effectively defends against common attacks such as replay attacks and identity forgery attacks through informal security analysis, while its security is evaluated using the Canetti and Krawczyk (CK) adversary models. Performance evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves effectiveness without the compromising required security attributes, which obtains up to 58% improvement 58% improvement in computation delay and a 56.9% improvement in communication costs over previous state-of-the-art methods.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the project "Research on edge adaptive security interaction technology of power IoT” (No. 546826230037) by Beijing FibrLink Communications Co. Ltd, and also funded by the project “Low cost distribution network tower tilt and outer break early warning system based on MESH ad-networking technology ”(No. XX92000Y07) by the Automation Technology Project of State Grid Zhejiang Xinxing Technology Co., LTD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing FibrLink Communications Co. Ltd., Beijing, 100071, China

    Siwei Li, Hui Zhang & Hui Shi

  2. KINDI Center for Computing Research, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Maode Ma

  3. Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China

    Cong Wang

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  1. Siwei Li
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  2. Hui Zhang
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  3. Hui Shi
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  4. Maode Ma
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  5. Cong Wang
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Contributions

L. and W. wrote the main manuscript text and Z.S. and M. prepared figures 1-10. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cong Wang.

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Li, S., Zhang, H., Shi, H. et al. A novel blockchain-enabled zero-trust-based authentication scheme in power IoT environments. J Supercomput 80, 20682–20714 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-024-06262-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-024-06262-y

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