A post-quantum lattice-based lightweight anonymous authentication scheme for IoT

Abstract The Internet of Things (IoT) comprises a complex network of smart objects that collect and exchange data with each other via the public Internet. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is currently one of the most important IoT technologies. To achieve the goal of intelligent management of items, radio-frequency identification tags retain messages gathered by the reader before transmitting them to the backend system processing and analysis. This creates a vast knowledge network. Considering that, personal information and privacy exposure, malicious tracking, and counterfeiting behaviours remain unresolved issues in the security area, we provide a lattice-based authentication technique in this research. The proposed lattice-based lightweight anonymous authentication protocol (LBAA) was based on the Inhomogeneous Small Integer Solution (ISIS) problem, which aids in resistance to quantum attacks. Additionally, the features of unforgeability, scalability, mutual authentication, availability, and perfect forward secrecy were attained. LBAA protocol offered anonymity and untraceability to both an adversary and an honest-but-curious backend server. The suggested approach provided defence against man-in-the-middle attacks tags collaboration attacks desynchronization attacks, track and trace attacks, and replay and impersonation attacks. To achieve this, we analyse the proposed protocol using both informal and formal analysis methods, such as the Real-or-Random (ROR) model and Scyther tools. Additionally, effectiveness of the proposed technique was compared to current studies.