A ZKP-Based Cross-Domain Continuous Authentication Scheme for Industrial Internet of Things

The advancement of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has enabled cross-domain collaboration among enterprises, facilitating data exchange and coordinated operations for complex manufacturing tasks. As the primary security mechanism, cross-domain continuous authentication periodically verifies external devices to prevent unauthorized access and session hijacking, thereby mitigating system vulnerabilities. However, existing solutions face limitations: some rely on device-specific features incompatible with heterogeneous environments, while others neglect cross-domain scenarios, offering insufficient privacy protection and irreversible identity management. To address these gaps, we propose a cross-domain authentication framework leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and blockchain technology. Devices are assigned anonymous identities, with revocation managed via a distributed ledger. Initial authentication employs zero-knowledge proofs to generate valid tokens, while continuous authentication refreshes these tokens periodically. Security analysis confirms robustness against common threats, and performance evaluations demonstrate that periodic token renewal reduces computational and communication costs compared to repeated initial authentication processes.