Blockchain based Privacy Preserving User Authentication Protocol for Distributed Mobile Cloud Environment

Abstract

The development in cloud computing platforms has resulted, hosting many day-to-day service applications in the cloud. To avail the services provided by different cloud service providers (CSPs), the mobile user has to register his/her identity with the CSPs. The mobile user (MU) has to remember multiple identities and credentials to access various CSPs. Many single sign-on schemes have been proposed in the literature to eliminate multiple registrations by mobile users to access CSPs. Most of these schemes rely on a trusted third party known as Registration Authority Center (RAC), which is a centralized entity to manage the identity information of all the mobile users registered with it. The centralized RAC has two operational problems, i.e., RAC has full control over the data it possesses, resulting in the possibility of the data breach and increased risk of single-point-of-failure. In this paper, we propose a blockchain based privacy preserving user authentication protocol for distributed mobile cloud environment, which solves these two traditional problems with centralized registration centers. In proposed protocol, the registration of MU and CSP are performed through public blockchain network for MU to access CSPs and the authentication was performed between MU and CSP through public blockchain. The public blockchain network stores MU and CSPs identity information. Public blockchain network provides integrity to the data stored in it and secures the system from single-point-of-failure. In addition, security analysis and performance analysis were also performed for proposed protocol and it showed that the proposed protocol is secure from all-known attacks with better performance efficiency.

Appendices

A Appendix

Highlights of proposed protocol

• We propose a blockchain based privacy preserving user authentication protocol for distributed mobile cloud environment protocol.

• Proposed protocol provides mutual authentication (MA) between a mobile user (MU_i) and cloud service provider (CSP_j) without the involvement of RAC.

• The proposed protocol provides additional security, based on the involvement of blockchain in the login & authentication phase.

• Proposed protocol provides additional features like one time registration using blockchain, user choice based CSPs registration based on blokchain, user choice based CSPs update phase based on blockchain, forget password, user update, user revocation phase based on blockchain, server revocation phase based on blockchain.

• Proposed protocol used blockchain for identity verification of mobile user and CSP in authentication.

• Proposed protocol provides integrity and confidentiality of data stored in blockchain.

• Proposed protocol was verified using informal security analysis, BAN logic, AVISPA tool and scyther tool.

• The proposed protocol was secure from all-known attacks and provides better performance.

B BAN logic

We consider F is a statement, P and R are principal and K is a key for proposed protocol.

Notations

• P∣ ≡ F:P believes F.

• # F: F is fresh.

• $P\mid \sim F$: P once said F.

• P∣ ⇒ F: P has jurisdiction over F.

• P ⊲ F: P sees F.

• $\left \{ F \right \}_{K}$: F is encrypted K.

• $\left (F \right )_{K}$: F is hashed K.

• $\left \langle F \right \rangle _{_{K}}$: F is combined K.

• $P\overset {K}\leftrightarrow R$: P and R use the common session key K.

Rules

• R₁: Message meaning rule: $\frac {P\mid \equiv P\overset {K}\leftrightarrow R,P\triangleleft \left \langle F \right \rangle _{_{K}}}{P\mid \equiv R\mid \sim X}$ and $\frac {P\mid \equiv P\overset {K}\leftrightarrow R,P\triangleleft \left \{ F \right \}_{K}}{P\mid \equiv R\mid \sim X}$

• R₂: Nonce-verification rule:$\frac {P\mid \equiv \#(F),P\mid \equiv R\sim F}{P\mid \equiv R\mid \equiv F}$

• R₃: Jurisdiction rule: $\frac {P\mid \equiv R\Rightarrow F,P\mid \equiv R\mid \equiv F}{P\mid \equiv F}$

• R₄: Freshness rule:$\frac {P\mid \equiv \#F}{S\mid \equiv \# (F,G)}$

Fig. 3

Role of mobile user (HLPSL specification)

Fig. 4

Role of cloud service provider (HLPSL specification)

Fig. 5

Role of Blockchain (HLPSL specification)

Fig. 6

Roles for session, environment and goals (HLPSL specification)

Fig. 7

Results of OFMC experiments

Fig. 8

Results of CL-AtSe experiments

Fig. 9

Macro definition functions for proposed protocol in Scyther Tool

Fig. 10

Roles of user, blockchain and cloud service provider in Scyther Tool

Fig. 11

Scyther results