Bio-Integrated Hybrid TESLA: A Fully Symmetric Lightweight Authentication Protocol

The rapid integration of IoT devices into everyday decision-making processes underscores the need for continuous user authentication and data integrity checking during network communication, all while minimizing energy consumption to extend device lifespan. This paper introduces the Bio-Integrated Hybrid TESLA protocol, which is a fully symmetric and energy-efficient authentication protocol designed for resource-constrained IoT devices. Based on the Hybrid TLI-lTESLA protocol, this innovative solution prioritizes high cybersecurity levels and minimal computational requirements for continuous authentication. An innovative advancement involves eliminating the public cryptography process during the synchronization stage of TESLA protocols. Instead, biometric authentication through distorted fingerprint and EEG templates is employed, to establish a non-shared symmetric session key, utilized only once. Furthermore, neither the key nor the original biometric templates are transmitted over the network, ensuring user identity preservation and effectively resolving the key distribution challenge inherent in symmetric cryptography. By offloading intensive tasks to servers and avoiding the storage or transmission of biometric data, the proposed approach conserves IoT device energy and enhances cybersecurity. Simulation analyses and cybersecurity assessments demonstrate successful synchronization, privacy preservation, and low computational demands compared to existing protocols, making the Bio-Integrated Hybrid TESLA protocol a significant advancement in IoT authentication.