Using a Spatial Context Authentication Proxy for Establishing Secure Wireless Connections

Spontaneous interaction in wireless ad-hoc networks is often desirable not only between users or devices in direct contact, but also with devices that are accessible only via a wireless network. Secure communication with such devices is difficult because of the required authentication, which is often either password- or certificate-based. An intuitive alternative is context-based authentication, where device authenticity is verified by shared context, and often by direct physical evidence. Devices that are physically separated cannot experience the same context and thus cannot benefit directly from context authentication. We introduce a context authentication proxy that is pre-authenticated with one of the devices and can authenticate with the other by shared context. This concept is applicable to a wide range of application scenarios, context sensing technologies, and trust models. We show its practicality in an implementation for setting up IPSec connections based on spatial refe...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: JMM
• Authors: Rene Mayrhofer, Roswitha Gostner
• Keywords: Authentication, Authentication Proxy, Context Authentication, JMM 2007