A scheme for the generation of strong cryptographic key pairs based on ICMetrics

This paper presents a scheme for the generation of strong high entropy keys based on ICMetrics. ICMetrics generates the security attributes of the sensor node based on measurable hardware and software characteristics of the integrated circuit. This work is based on key derivation functions to derive cryptographic key pairs from ICMetrics values. The proposed ICMetrics based key derivation function makes use of ICMetrics basis numbers and authentication tokens from the trusted third party to generate high entropy public/private key pairs. The proposed approach makes use of key stretching using SHA-2 and performs multiple iterations of the proposed key derivation function to generate strong high entropy keys of sufficient length, so as to prevent exhaustive search attacks. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that the entire key generation scheme has been designed keeping in mind the construction principles of ICMetrics, which does not store keys but computes these for every session based on ICMetrics value, therefore use of a random value anywhere in the protocol will compromise the purpose of ICMetrics. The proposed scheme generates high entropy key pairs while concealing the original ICMetrics data, such that it is impossible to recover the ICMetrics basis data in the system. © 2012 Infonomics Society.