Cryptanalysis of robust mutual authentication protocol for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor network (WSN) have been applied in many different areas. Mutual authentication is an important service in WSN. In 2010, Chen and Shih proposed a robust mutual authentication (RMA) protocol for WSN. However, this paper points out that Chen-Shih's RMA protocol has some drawbacks: (1) user impersonation attacks by a malicious registered user, (2) GW-node impersonation attacks by a malicious registered user, (3) sensor node impersonation attacks by a malicious registered user, (4) privileged insider attacks, and (5) time synchronization problem.