TACKing Together Efficient Authentication, Revocation, and Privacy in VANETs (CMU-CyLab-08-011)

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) require some mechanism to help authenticate messages, identify valid vehicles, and re- move malevolent vehicles. A Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) can provide this functionality using certificates and fixed public keys. However, fixed keys allow an eavesdropper to associate a key with a vehicle and a location, violating drivers’ privacy. In this work we examine a VANET key management scheme based on Temporary Anonymous Certified Keys (TACKs). Our scheme efficiently prevents eavesdroppers from linking a vehicle’s different keys and provides timely revocation of misbehaving participants while maintaining the same or less overhead for vehicle-to- vehicle communication as the current IEEE 1609.2 standard for VANET security.