Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An improved anonymous authentication scheme for distributed mobile cloud computing services

  • Published:
Cluster Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mobile cloud computing blend mobile and cloud computing together with the help of wireless communication technology to achieve benefits for the stakeholders. These stakeholders include mobile users, mobile service operators and cloud service providers. Assorted challenges are also there for the implementation of mobile cloud computing but security and privacy are the dominant concerns. In order to achieve security and privacy of the said system several attempts are taken up. As the underlying system is complex and more prone against security threats, therefore strong authentication and privacy preserving schemes are desired. Three factor biometrics based authentication schemes are considered more secure for such huge and complex systems. Moreover, computational intelligence is getting popular nowadays for designing more vigorous and reliable biometrics based authentication schemes. Very recently, Tsai and Lo proposed an identity based authentication scheme for distributed mobile cloud computing environments. They claimed to achieve single sign on authentication for multiple service providers. Furthermore, they emphasized the usefulness and security of their scheme. However, the analysis in this paper shows that Tsai and Lo’s scheme is insecure against server forgery attack. It is proved that any adversaries having knowledge of just public parameters can forge as a valid service provider. Then an improved scheme is proposed to mitigate the security weakness. The security of proposed scheme is instantiated under random oracle model as well as the protocol validation model of popular automated tool ProVerif.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zhangjie, F., Xingming, S., Qi, L., Lu, Z., Jiangang, S.: Achieving efficient cloud search services: multi-keyword ranked search over encrypted cloud data supporting parallel computing. IEICE Transact. Commun. 98(1), 190–200 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Badve, O.P., Gupta, B., Yamaguchi, S., Gou, Z.: Ddos detection and filtering technique in cloud environment using garch model. In: Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE 4th Global Conference on Consumer Electronics (GCCE), pp. 584–586. (2015)

  3. Gupta, B.: Handbook of Research on Modern Cryptographic Solutions for Computer and Cyber Security. IGI Global, Hershey (2016)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, J., Li, J., Chen, X., Jia, C., Lou, W.: Identity-based encryption with outsourced revocation in cloud computing. IEEE Transact. Comput. 64(2), 425–437 (2015)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Gupta, B., Badve, O.P.: Taxonomy of dos and ddos attacks and desirable defense mechanism in a cloud computing environment. Neu. Comput. Appl. (2016) doi:10.1007/s00521-016-2317-5

  6. Ren, Y.J., Shen, J., Wang, J., Han, J., Lee, S.Y.: Mutual verifiable provable data auditing in public cloud storage. J. Int. Technol. 16(2), 317–323 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Dinh, H.T., Lee, C., Niyato, D., Wang, P.: A survey of mobile cloud computing: architecture, applications, and approaches. Wireless Commun. Mob. Comput. 13(18), 1587–1611 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Xia, Z., Wang, X., Zhang, L., Qin, Z., Sun, X., Ren, K.: A privacy-preserving and copy-deterrence content-based image retrieval scheme in cloud computing. IEEE Transact. Inf. Foren. Secur. 11(11), 2594–2608 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, Y., Chen, R., Wang, D.C.: A survey of mobile cloud computing applications: perspectives and challenges. Wirel. Person. Commun. 80(4), 1607–1623 (2015)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Fernando, N., Loke, S.W., Rahayu, W.: Mobile cloud computing: a survey. Future Gen. Comput. Syst. 29(1), 84–106 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Khan, A.N., Kiah, M.M., Khan, S.U., Madani, S.A.: Towards secure mobile cloud computing: a survey. Futur. Gen. Comput. Syst. 29(5), 1278–1299 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Alizadeh, M., Baharun, S., Zamani, M., Khodadadi, T., Darvishi, M., Gholizadeh, S., Ahmadi, H.: Anonymity and untraceability assessment of authentication protocols in proxy mobile ipv6. Jurnal Teknologi 72(5), 28 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Alizadeh, M., Zamani, M., Baharun, S., Hassan, W.H., Khodadadi, T.: Security and privacy criteria to evaluate authentication mechanisms in proxy mobile ipv6. Jurnal Teknologi 72(5), 28 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Alizadeh, M., Zamani, M., Baharun, S., Manaf, A.A., Sakurai, K., Anada, H., Keshavarz, H., Chaudhry, S.A., Khan, M.K.: Cryptanalysis and improvement of “a secure password authentication mechanism for seamless handover in proxy mobile ipv6 networks”. PloS one 10(11), e0142 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. He, D., Zeadally, S., Kumar, N., Lee, J.H.: Anonymous authentication for wireless body area networks with provable security. IEEE Syst. J. 99, 1–12 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  16. He, D., Zeadally, S., Wu, L.: Certificateless public auditing scheme for cloud-assisted wireless body area networks. IEEE Syst. J. 99, 1–10 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Li, J., Liu, Z., Chen, X., Xhafa, F., Tan, X., Wong, D.S.: L-encdb: a lightweight framework for privacy-preserving data queries in cloud computing. Knowl. Based Syst. 79, 18–26 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Tsai, J.L., Lo, N.W., Wu, T.C.: Secure delegation-based authentication protocol for wireless roaming service. Commun. Lett. IEEE 16(7), 1100–1102 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Wang, D., He, D., Wang, P., Chu, C.H.: Anonymous two-factor authentication in distributed systems: certain goals are beyond attainment. Dependable and secure computing. IEEE Transact. 12(4), 428–442 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wang, D., Wang, P.: On the anonymity of two-factor authentication schemes for wireless sensor networks: attacks, principle and solutions. Comput. Netw. 73, 41–57 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Wang, D., Wang, P.A.: Understanding security failures of two-factor authentication schemes for real-time applications in hierarchical wireless sensor networks. Ad. Hoc. Netw. 20, 1–115 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Xiao, Z., Xiao, Y.: Security and privacy in cloud computing. Commun. Surv. Tutor. IEEE 15(2), 843–859 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Alizadeh, M., Abolfazli, S., Zamani, M., Baharun, S., Sakurai, K.: Authentication in mobile cloud computing: a survey. J. Netw. Comput. Appl. 61, 59–80 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Lin, H., Xu, L., Huang, X., Wu, W., Huang, Y.: A trustworthy access control model for mobile cloud computing based on reputation and mechanism design. Ad Hoc Networks 35, 51–64 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.adhoc.2015.07.007. (Special Issue on Big Data Inspired Data Sensing, Processing and Networking Technologies)

  25. Armando, A., Carbone, R., Compagna, L., Cuéllar, J., Pellegrino, G., Sorniotti, A.: An authentication flaw in browser-based single sign-on protocols: impact and remediations. Comput. Secu. 33, 41–58 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. He, D., Kumar, N., Chilamkurti, N.: A secure temporal-credential-based mutual authentication and key agreement scheme with pseudo identity for wireless sensor networks. Inf. Sci. 321, 263–277 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. He, D., Kumar, N., Wang, H., Wang, L., Choo, K.K.R., Vinel, A.: A provably-secure cross-domain handshake scheme with symptoms-matching for mobile healthcare social network. IEEE Transact. Depend. Secure Comput. 1, 99 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  28. He, D., Zeadally, S.: Authentication protocol for an ambient assisted living system. Commun. Mag. IEEE 53(1), 71–77 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Tsai, J.L., Lo, N.W.: A privacy-aware authentication scheme for distributed mobile cloud computing services. Syst. J. IEEE 9(3), 805–815 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Wang, D., Guang, C.: Cryptanalysis of a remote user authentication scheme for mobile client-server environment based on ECC. Inf. Fus. 14(4), 498–503 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Barker, E., Barker, W., Burr, W., Polk, W., Smid, M.: Recommendation for key management-part 1: general. NIST Spec. Publ. 800, 1–147 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Koblitz, N.: Elliptic curve cryptosystems. Math. Comput. 48(177), 203–209 (1987)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  33. Miller, V.: Use of elliptic curves in cryptography. In: Proceedings of Advances in Cryptology—CRYPTO’85, pp. 417–426. Springer, Heidelberg (1986)

  34. Du, H., Wen, Q.: An efficient identity-based short signature scheme from bilinear pairings. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Security, pp. 725–729. IEEE (2007)

  35. Lim, H.W., Robshaw, M.J.: On identity-based cryptography and grid computing. Computational science, pp. 474–477. Springer, Berlin (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Lim, H.W., Robshaw, M.J.A.: A dynamic key infrastructure for grid, pp. 255–264. Springer, Berlin (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Li, H., Dai, Y., Tian, L., Yang, H.: Identity-based authentication for cloud computing, pp. 157–166. Springer, Berlin (2009)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  38. Hughes, D., Shmatikov, V.: Information hiding, anonymity and privacy: a modular approach. J. Comput. Secur. 12(1), 3–36 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Tsai, J.L., Lo, N.W., Wu, T.C.: Novel anonymous authentication scheme using smart cards. Industrial informatics. IEEE Transact. 9(4), 2004–2013 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Huang, X., Xiang, Y., Bertino, E., Zhou, J., Xu, L.: Robust multi-factor authentication for fragile communications. Dependable and secure computing. IEEE Transact. 11(6), 568–581 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Sun, H., Wen, Q., Zhang, H., Jin, Z.: A novel remote user authentication and key agreement scheme for mobile client-server environment. Appl. Math. 7(4), 1365–1374 (2013)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. Wang, D., Mei, Y., Ma, C.g., Cui, Z.s.: Comments on an advanced dynamic id-based authentication scheme for cloud computing. In: Proceedings of the Web Information Systems and Mining, pp. 246–253. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

  43. Yang, X., Huang, X., Liu, J.K.: Efficient handover authentication with user anonymity and untraceability for mobile cloud computing. Futu. Gen. Comput. Syst. 62, 190–195 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Cao, X., Zhong, S.: Breaking a remote user authentication scheme for multi-server architecture. Commun. Lett. IEEE 10(8), 580–581 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Dolev, D., Yao, A.C.: On the security of public key protocols. Information theory. IEEE Transact. 29(2), 198–208 (1983)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  46. Eisenbarth, T., Kasper, T., Moradi, A., Paar, C., Salmasizadeh, M., Shalmani, M.: On the power of power analysis in the real world: A complete break of the keeloq code hopping scheme. In: Wagner, D. (ed.) Advances in Cryptology, CRYPTO 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 203–220. Springer, Berlin (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  47. Xie, Q., Dong, N., Wong, D.S., Hu, B.: Cryptanalysis and security enhancement of a robust two-factor authentication and key agreement protocol. Int. J. Commun. Syst. 29, 478–487 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Chaudhry, S.A., Naqvi, H., Sher, M., Farash, M.S.: An improved and provably secure privacy preserving authentication protocol for sip. Peer Peer Netw. Appl. 10(1), 1–15 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Goriparthi, T., Das, M.L., Saxena, A.: An improved bilinear pairing based remote user authentication scheme. Comput. Stand. Interf. 31(1), 181–185 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. De Caro, A., Iovino, V.: jpbc: Java pairing based cryptography. In: Proceedings of the 16th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications, ISCC 2011, pp. 850–855. IEEE, Kerkyra, Corfu, Greece, 28 June–1 July 2011

  51. Java pairing based cryptography (jpbc). http://gas.dia.unisa.it/projects/jpbc/#.VcUnwbU0rlw (2015). Accessed 7 Aug 2015

Download references

Acknowledgements

Authors would also like to thank Mr. Shahzad Siddique Chaudhry, anonymous reviewers and the guest editors for their valuable and constructive comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science & Software Engineering, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhry

  2. Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    I Luk Kim

  3. Department of Multimedia, Sungkyul University, #102 Sungkyul-gwan, Sungkyul University-ro 53,Manan-gu, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 430-742, Republic of Korea

    Seungmin Rho

  4. Faculty of Mathematical Sciences and Computer, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Sabzinejad Farash

  5. Division of Information and Computer Engineering, College of Information Technology, Ajou University, San 5, Woncheon-Dong, Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon, 443-749, Korea

    Taeshik Shon

Authors
  1. Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. I Luk Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Seungmin Rho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mohammad Sabzinejad Farash
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Taeshik Shon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Taeshik Shon.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chaudhry, S.A., Kim, I.L., Rho, S. et al. An improved anonymous authentication scheme for distributed mobile cloud computing services. Cluster Comput 22 (Suppl 1), 1595–1609 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-017-1088-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-017-1088-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation