An integrated system for secure code distribution in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a Secure Code Update (SCU) system for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This solution achieves different security goals. First, through a dedicated authentication protocol it provides protection against the corruption of code images during their dissemination. Authentication routines exploit a lightweight asymmetric T-time signature algorithm and allow the out-of-order reception of data blocks. Second, confidentiality is provided through the implementation of an optimized symmetric encryption suite, designed to leverage the processing capabilities offered by typical IEEE 802.15.4 radios. Last, our solution offers protection against denial of service attacks. In the first part of the paper we present the integration of this security system with the SYNAPSE++ reprogramming protocol, focusing on the description of the security suite as well as on its salient implementation aspects. After this, we present experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness against security attacks and quantify the loss in performance due to the addition of security components to SYNAPSE++.