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Universal device pairing using an auxiliary device

Published: 23 July 2008 Publication History

Abstract

The operation of achieving authenticated key agreement between two human-operated devices over a short-range wireless communication channel (such as Bluetooth or WiFi) is referred to as "Pairing". The devices in such a scenario are ad hoc in nature, i.e., they can neither be assumed to have a prior context (such as pre-shared secrets) with each other nor do they share a common trusted on- or off-line authority. However, the devices can generally be connected using auxiliary physical channel(s) (such as audio, visual, etc.) that can be authenticated by the device user(s) and thus form a basis for pairing.
One of the main challenges of secure device pairing is the lack of good quality output interfaces as well as corresponding receivers on devices. In [13], we presented a pairing scheme which is universally applicable to any pair of devices (such as a WiFi AP and a laptop, a Bluetooth keyboard and a desktop, etc.). The scheme is based upon the device user(s) comparing short and simple synchronized audiovisual patterns, such as "beeping" and "blinking". In this paper, we automate the (manual) scheme of [13] by making use of an auxiliary, commonly available device such as a personal camera phone. Based on a preliminary user study we conducted, we show that the automated scheme is generally faster and more user-friendly relative to the manual scheme. More importantly, the proposed scheme turns out to be quite accurate in the detection of any possible attacks.

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  • (2019)Challenges to be addressed to realize Internet of Things solutions for smart environmentsFuture Generation Computer Systems10.1016/j.future.2019.09.033Online publication date: Sep-2019
  • (2016)Out-of-Band Covert Channels—A SurveyACM Computing Surveys10.1145/293837049:2(1-36)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2016
  • (2016)MagPairing: Pairing Smartphones in Close Proximity Using MagnetometersIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2015.250562611:6(1306-1320)Online publication date: Jun-2016
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      cover image ACM Other conferences
      SOUPS '08: Proceedings of the 4th symposium on Usable privacy and security
      July 2008
      145 pages
      ISBN:9781605582764
      DOI:10.1145/1408664
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Publication History

      Published: 23 July 2008

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      Author Tags

      1. authentication
      2. distributed protocols
      3. mobile/ad-hoc systems
      4. security

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      SOUPS '08
      SOUPS '08: The fourth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security
      July 23 - 25, 2008
      Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, USA

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      Overall Acceptance Rate 15 of 49 submissions, 31%

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      Cited By

      View all
      • (2019)Challenges to be addressed to realize Internet of Things solutions for smart environmentsFuture Generation Computer Systems10.1016/j.future.2019.09.033Online publication date: Sep-2019
      • (2016)Out-of-Band Covert Channels—A SurveyACM Computing Surveys10.1145/293837049:2(1-36)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2016
      • (2016)MagPairing: Pairing Smartphones in Close Proximity Using MagnetometersIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2015.250562611:6(1306-1320)Online publication date: Jun-2016
      • (2016)Flashing displaysSecurity and Communication Networks10.1002/sec.14009:10(1050-1071)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2016
      • (2015)Checksum gesturesProceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing10.1145/2750858.2807521(391-401)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2015
      • (2014)A Survey of User Interaction for Spontaneous Device AssociationACM Computing Surveys10.1145/259776847:1(1-40)Online publication date: 1-May-2014
      • (2014)MagPairing: Exploiting magnetometers for pairing smartphones in close proximity2014 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security10.1109/CNS.2014.6997514(445-453)Online publication date: Oct-2014
      • (2012)Secure Initialization of Multiple Constrained Wireless Devices for an Unaided UserIEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing10.1109/TMC.2011.3511:2(337-351)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2012
      • (2012)Topology-Driven Secure Initialization in Wireless Sensor NetworksProceedings of the 2012 Seventh International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security10.1109/ARES.2012.36(28-37)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2012
      • (2012)Usability classification for spontaneous device associationPersonal and Ubiquitous Computing10.1007/s00779-011-0421-116:1(77-89)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2012
      • Show More Cited By

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