Blockchain Assisted Secure Authentication Protocol for Aerial Surveillance in <scp>IoT</scp>‐Based Smart Agriculture

ABSTRACT In modern smart agriculture, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play a crucial role in data acquisition, crop monitoring, and precision farming using high‐resolution cameras and advanced sensors. However, the extensive use of IoT devices and aerial surveillance systems introduces significant security challenges, making drone‐captured data vulnerable to unauthorized access, cyberattacks, and data tampering. As multiple entities collaborate in smart agriculture, the need for a secure and efficient authentication mechanism becomes critical. To address these concerns, this paper presents a blockchain‐assisted secure two‐factor mutual authentication scheme for aerial surveillance security in IoT‐enabled smart agriculture. The key contributions are twofold: (1) A blockchain‐based authentication framework that ensures decentralized, tamper‐proof security, and (2) an efficient and lightweight authentication mechanism using physically unclonable functions (PUF) to enhance device authentication and mitigate impersonation threats. The proposed protocol is formally verified using automated validation of internet security protocols and applications (AVISPA) to assess its security robustness. The results demonstrate that the protocol effectively defends against major security threats while maintaining low computational complexity (1.11 ms). Comparative analysis indicates that the proposed approach outperforms conventional authentication schemes, offering enhanced security, scalability, and efficiency in IoT‐based aerial surveillance security for smart agriculture.