A Robust ECC-Based Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for 6G-Based Smart Home Environments

With the rapid evolution of wireless communication technology, smart homes have significantly improved the quality of peoples daily lives by taking advantage of the low latency and high transmission rates of 6G communication technology. Users can now conveniently manage the consumer electronics remotely. However, in the pratical smart home scenarios, the users and consumer electronics communicate with each other through an open public channels where charted and uncharted security risks and privacy vulnerabilities exist. To protect users confidential data from malicious interception and modification, diverse authentication protocols have been proposed so far. However, existing protocols often suffer from efficiency issues or vulnerabilities to known attacks. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel three-factor ECC-based anonymous authentication protocol. The protocols security properties can be rigorously proven using the formal analysis under the ROR model. Subsequently, the resistance to numerous types of attacks, including man-in-the-middle and replay attacks, can be demonstrated through informal analysis and the AVISPA verification process. Finally, the protocol is compared with the state-of-the-arts and the results show that the protocol strikes a good balance between security and efficiency and is well suited for smart home environments.