Physical layer security protocols exploit inviolable physical laws at the signal level for providing guarantees on secrecy of communications. These protocols invariably involve randomized encoding at the transmitter, for which an ideal random number generator is typically assumed in the literature. In this work, we study the impact of using weak Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNGs) in physical layer security protocols for coding and forward key distribution over Binary Symmetric and Gaussian wiretap channels. In the case of wiretap channel coding, we study fast correlation attacks that aim to retrieve the initial seed used in the PRNGs. Our results show that randomized coset encoding, which forms an important part of wiretap channel coding, provides useful robustness against fast correlation attacks. In the case of single-round or forward key distribution over a Gaussian wiretap channel, the bits from a PRNG are nonlinearly transformed to generate Gaussian-distributed pseudo random numbers at the transmitter. In such cases, we design modified versions of the fast correlation attacks accounting for the effects of the nonlinear transformation and soft input. We observe that, even for moderately high memory, the success probability of the modified fast correlation attacks become the same as that of a random guess in many cases.
Physical layer security protocols exploit inviolable physical laws at the signal level for providing guarantees on secrecy of communications. These protocols invariably involve randomized encoding at the transmitter, for which an ideal random number generator is typically assumed in the literature. In this work, we study the impact of using weak Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNGs) in physical layer security protocols for coding and forward key distribution over Binary Symmetric and Gaussian wiretap channels. In the case of wiretap channel coding, we study fast correlation attacks that aim to retrieve the initial seed used in the PRNGs. Our results show that randomized coset encoding, which forms an important part of wiretap channel coding, provides useful robustness against fast correlation attacks. In the case of single-round or forward key distribution over a Gaussian wiretap channel, the bits from a PRNG are nonlinearly transformed to generate Gaussian-distributed pseudo random numbers at the transmitter. In such cases, we design modified versions of the fast correlation attacks accounting for the effects of the nonlinear transformation and soft input. We observe that, even for moderately high memory, the success probability of the modified fast correlation attacks become the same as that of a random guess in many cases.
Providing secure communications over the physical layer with the objective of achieving secrecy without requiring a secret key has been receiving growing attention within the past decade. The vast majority of the existing studies in the area of physical layer security focus exclusively on the scenarios where the channel inputs are Gaussian distributed. However, in practice, the signals employed for transmission are drawn from discrete signal constellations such as phase shift keying and quadrature amplitude modulation. Hence, understanding the impact of the finite-alphabet input constraints and designing secure transmission schemes under this assumption is a mandatory step toward a practical implementation of physical layer security. With this motivation, this paper reviews recent developments on physical layer security with finite-alphabet inputs. We explore transmit signal design algorithms for single-antenna as well as multi-antenna wiretap channels under different assumptions on the channel state information at the transmitter. Moreover, we present a review of the recent results on secure transmission with discrete signaling for various scenarios including multi-carrier transmission systems, broadcast channels with confidential messages, cognitive multiple access and relay networks. Throughout the article, we stress the important behavioral differences of discrete versus Gaussian inputs in the context of the physical layer security. We also present an overview of practical code construction over Gaussian and fading wiretap channels, and discuss some open problems and directions for future research.
Nowadays, network security plays a major role in the field of wireless communications. Wired networks propagate electrical signals or pulses through cables. Whereas wireless signals propagate through the air. If wireless networks are left open and exposed to the outside world, there are high chances of being misused by others. The intruders take advantage of this, to intercept the wireless signals. This is the reason why an extra level of security is required for wireless networks. The physical layer is one of the important layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model which plays an important role in the network’s physical connections like wireless transmission, cabling, connections etc. The physical layer supports the bit-level transmission between various devices by connecting to the physical medium for synchronized communication.In this thesis, a method is studied for exchanging secret key [1] bits using a pseudo-random sequence generator based on Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems. The principle of this method is to generate a secret key in a manner that produces low correlation at the intruder. By uniquely relating the secret key bits to the channel in a private version of the universal codebook, a robust key exchange between the transmitter and the receiver is then performed.
Wyner [96] proved that unconditionally secure communication over noisy channels is possible if the wiretapping channel is noisier than the main channel. The work has developed the following belief: Physical-channel characteristics are great resources to build security functionalities in the information-theoretic framework. We follow this belief and investigate the three problems of secret key establishment, manipulation detection, and distance bounding verification over physical-layer channels. We investigate secret key establishment (SKE) between Alice and Bob when they are connected through a pair of noisy wiretap channels with leakage to Eve. Our results show the possibility of SKE even in cases where the main channels are noisier than Eve's channels. We then notice two implicit assumptions of this work: (i) local randomness is freely available, and (ii) the wiretap channels are independent. We remove Assumption (i) by considering no local randomness for the parties. The results appreciate the role of noise as a single resource for randomness derivation and key generation in this setting. Regarding the second assumption, we consider the general two-way wiretap channel, where simultaneous data transmission can help achieve higher key rates. We show under what condition our security requirements can be strengthened without sacrificing the SK capacity. We consider manipulation detection against physical-layer adversaries noticing their limitations. We define leakage-resilient algebraic manipulation detection (LR-AMD) codes and prove optimal LR-AMD code constructions in general and special leakage scenarios. We show two applications of these codes: (i) robust nonperfect secret sharing and (ii) manipulation detection over wiretap channels. We then discuss how these codes can be composed with other primitives to guarantee bitwise manipulation detection and SKE against active adversaries over binary wiretap channels. Distance bounding verification (DBV) allows a verifier to check an upper bound on a claimed distance from a prover. We study DBV over physical channels with security against distance fraud (DFA), ma a fraud (MFA) and terrorist fraud (TFA) attacks. We show efficient DFA- and MFA-secure protocols only using physical channel properties. We further prove that TFA-security becomes feasible if the parties' communication is limited by the bounded retrieval model (BRM).
Abstract In this paper, a discrete memoryless wiretap channel with non-causal side information known at the encoder is considered. We (i) characterize capacity region for the Gaussian version of this channel by considering correlation between channel input and side information available at the transmitter; (ii) analyze the impact of correlation on the performance of physical layer security in a Rayleigh fading wiretap channel by deriving closed-form expressions on the average secrecy capacity (ASC) and secrecy outage probability (SOP). Further, to more show the impact of side information, asymptotic behavior of SOP is studied. Numerical evaluation of theoretical results is done finally.
Due to the broadcast nature, wireless links are open to malicious intrusions from outsiders, which makes the security issues a critical concern in the wireless communicationsover them. Physical-layer security techniques, which are based on the Shannon’s unconditional secrecy model, are effective in addressing the security issue while meeting the required performance level. According to the Wyner’s wiretap channel model, to achieve unconditionally security communication, the first step is to build up a wiretap channel with better channel quality between the legitimate communication peers than that of the eavesdropper; and the second step is to employ a robust security code to ensure that the legitimate users experience negligible errors while the eavesdropper is subject to 0.5 error probability. \nMotivated by this idea, in this thesis, we build wiretap channels for the single antenna systems without resorting to the spatial degree in commonly observed the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Firstly, to build effective wiretap channels, we design a novel scheme, called multi-round two-way communications (MRTWC). By taking feedback mechanisms into the design of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes, our scheme adds randomness to the feedback signals from the destination to keep the eavesdropper ignorant while adding redundancy with the LDPC codes so that the legitimate receiver can correctly receive and decode the signals. Then, the channel BERs are specifically quantified according to the crossover probability in the case of Binary Symmetric Channel (BSC), or the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in the case of AWGN and Rayleigh channels. Thus, the novel scheme can be utilized to address the security and reliability. Meanwhile, we develop a cross-layer approach to building the wiretap channel, which is suitable for high dynamic scenarios. By taking advantage of multiple parameters freedom in the discrete fractional Fourier transform (DFRFT) for single antenna systems, the proposed scheme introduces a distortion parameter instead of a general signal parameter for wireless networks based on DFRFT. The transmitter randomly flip-flops the uses of the distortion parameter and the general signal parameter to confuse the eavesdropper. An upper-layer cipher sequence will be employed to control the flip-flops. This cryptographic sequence in the higher layer is combined with the physical layer security scheme with random parameter fipping in DFRFT to guarantee security advantages over the main communication channel. \nAs the efforts on the second step, this thesis introduces a novel approach to generate security codes, which can be used for encoding with low complexity by taking advantage of a matrix general inverse algorithm. The novel constructions of the security codes are based on binary and non-binary resilient functions. With the proposed security codes, we prove that our novel security codes can ensure 0.5 error probability seen by the wiretapper while close to zero by the intended receiver if the error probability of the wiretapper’s channel is over a derived threshold. Therefore, the unconditionally secure communication of legitimate partners can be guaranteed. It has been proved mathematically that the non-binary security codes could achieve closer to the security capacity bound than any other reported short-length security codes under BSC. \nFinally, we develop the framework of associating the wiretap channel building approach with the security codes. The advantages between legitimate partners are extended via developing the security codes on top of our cross-layer DFRFT and feedback MRTWC security communication model. In this way, the proposed system could ensure almost zero information obtained by the eavesdroppers while still keeping rather lower error transmissions for legitimate users. Extensive experiments are carried out to verify the proposed security schemes and demonstrate the feasibility and implement ability. An USRP testbed is also constructed, under which the physical layer security mechanisms are implemented and tested. Our study shows that our proposed security schemes can be implemented in practical communications settings.
Abstract In the process of quantum key distribution (QKD), the communicating parties need to randomly determine quantum states and measurement bases. To ensure the security of key distribution, we aim to use true random sequences generated by true random number generators as the source of randomness. In practical systems, due to the difficulty of obtaining true random numbers, pseudo-random number generators are used instead. Although the random numbers generated by pseudo-random number generators are statistically random, meeting the requirements of uniform distribution and independence, they rely on an initial seed to generate corresponding pseudo-random sequences. Attackers may predict future elements from the initial elements of the random sequence, posing a security risk to quantum key distribution. This paper analyzes the problems existing in current pseudo-random number generators and proposes corresponding attack methods and applicable scenarios based on the vulnerabilities in the pseudo-random sequence generation process. Under certain conditions, it is possible to obtain the keys of the communicating parties with very low error rates, thus effectively attacking the quantum key system. This paper presents new requirements for the use of random numbers in quantum key systems, which can effectively guide the security evaluation of quantum key distribution protocols.