A Practically Secure Two-Factor and Mutual Authentication Protocol for Distributed Wireless Sensor Networks Using PUF

In a distributed wireless sensor network (DWSN), sensors continuously perceive the environment, collect data, and transmit it to remote users through the network so as to realize real-time monitoring of the environment or specific targets. However, given the openness of wireless channels and the sensitivity of collecting data, designing a robust user authentication protocol to ensure the legitimacy of user and sensors in such DWSN environments faces serious challenges. Most of the current authentication schemes fail to meet some important and often overlooked security features, such as resisting physical impersonation attack, resisting smartcard loss attack, and providing forward secrecy. In this work, we put forward a practically secure two-factor authentication scheme using a physically unclonable function to prevent a physical impersonation attack and sensor node capture attack, utilize Chebyshev chaotic mapping to provide forward secrecy, and improve the efficiency and security of session key negotiation. Furthermore, we use the fuzzy verifier technique to prevent attackers from offline guessing attacks to resist smartcard loss attacks. In addition, a BAN logic proof and heuristic security analysis show that the scheme achieves mutual authentication and key agreement as well as prevents known attacks. A comparative analysis with state-of-the-art schemes shows that the proposal not only achieves desired security features but also maintains better efficiency.