LMFA-WSN: A Lightweight Multi-factor Authentication Protocol For IoT-based WSNs

The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has introduced a new dimension of connectivity, efficiency, and automation. However, it also presents significant security concerns, particularly in authentication. Strong and trustworthy authentication protocols are required to ensure secure communication and trustworthiness in IoT systems. For instance, Sahoo et al.’s authentication scheme has serious design flaws and lacks forward and backwards secrecy. Similarly, due to inherent design flaws, Mahmood et al.’s protocol is vulnerable to several major attacks. This paper presents a novel, lightweight authentication scheme for IoT-enabled WSNs to address these challenges. We prioritise low computational overhead, scalability, and strong security guarantees like perfect forward secrecy, backwards secrecy, and immunity against replay, MiTM, impersonation attacks, etc. We demonstrate through an extensive security analysis of the ROM model that our scheme addresses the shortcomings of existing methods. The protocol’s security is formally verified using the Scyther tool, and its practical feasibility is demonstrated through ESP32-based simulation on the wokwi platform, confirming correct cryptographic operations and session key management. This paper is a significant step toward designing an efficient and secure authentication system in line with the evolving requirements of modern IoT infrastructures.