Security and Privacy of Vehicular ad hoc Networks Supporting Revocation

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), vehicles communicate with other vehicles or fixed infrastructure, called road-side units (RSUs). One of the main goals for VANETs is to improve vehicle safety. Work has begun on defining and implementing VANET safety applications. VANET security services will be standardized in IEEE 1609.2. Safety application message broadcasts will include reports of vehicles’ positions, velocities, and accelerations. Vehicles will use these messages as the basis for presenting warnings to drivers. An insecure, distributed, wireless, easily accessible vehicular safety system could easily be taken advantage of and actually result in poorer vehicular safety. VANET safety messages need to be secured to mitigate falsified reports from malicious actors and to detect erroneous reports generated by malfunctioning vehicles. Concretely, safety messages must be authenticated to a vehicle, and a malicious or malfunctioning vehicle (i.e., one that creates falsified or erroneous messages) should have its credentials (i.e., its certificate or certificates) revoked. In the eyes of government agencies and of automobile manufacturers, a deployable VANET must not only be built on secure safety applications but must also protect a user’s privacy. Specifically, consumers may be averse to the privacy implications of using a vehicle that broadcasts highly accurate reports of its location. This work addresses VANET security and privacy in the following ways. It investigates how specific authentication mechanisms affect network performance. Next, it provides a scheme for the swift access to time-sensitive security information. This work evaluates what user privacy is obtainable based on sharing authentication keys. Further, this work evaluates VANET network-layer and application-layer performance in the broader context of safety application communication requirements. Additionally, it studies providing enhanced privacy to VANET users through identity obfuscating radios.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Haas, Jason J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hu, Yih-Chun
• Borisov, Nikita
• Kumar, P.R.
• Nicol, David M.

• vehicular networks
• security
• privacy
• safety
• vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET)
• wireless

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Jason J. Haas

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16766

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16766