An anonymous credential-based efficient staged dual-chain authentication protocol for satellite–earth links

With the rapid development of satellite technology, the privacy authentication problem is becoming increasingly prominent. To solve the low efficiency of user authentication caused by frequent switching of the satellite-earth link and possible identity leakage, man-in-the-middle attacks and other security problems, a staged dual-chain authentication scheme based on Anonymous Credentials (AC) is proposed. In the access authentication phase, the user is authenticated for the first time and obtains the group session key. In the permission authentication phase, the user uses the multi-attribute aggregation function of AC to diversify service demand requests and obtains the corresponding permissions with successful authentication. After entering the new coverage domain, the user selectively performs switching authentication, efficiently realizing access authentication while completing permission authentication. In addition, the staged authentication system of the program can further improve the authentication efficiency of the satellite network and avoid unnecessary waste of resources. The security and performance analysis shows that the scheme can meet the security requirements of two-way authentication in satellite networks, with lower computation and communication expenses and better overall performance.