Date of Award
5-1-2025
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Computer Science
First Advisor
Bhattacharya, Ansuman
Abstract
Security and privacy concerns in modern computational environments necessitate robust authentication mechanisms to safeguard sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access. This thesis focuses on two critical aspects of secure authentication validating user legitimacy before granting network access and ensuring robust security measures throughout data transmission. To achieve these objectives, a secure authentication protocol is proposed, leveraging cryptographic techniques such as hashing, symmetric encryption, and dynamic pseudonyms. The protocol ensures mutual authentication and secure session key exchange while preserving user anonymity and preventing identity tracking. By incorporating a secure initialization phase, user registration, and a mutual authentication key exchange (MAKE) process, the proposed scheme effectively mitigates security threats, including replay attacks, impersonation, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Additionally, the use of lightweight symmetric cryptographic operations enhances efficiency, making the protocol suitable for low-power and resource-constrained environments.
Access
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