An identity-based security system for user privacy in vehicular ad hoc networks

Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) can offer various services and benefits to users and thus deserves deployment effort. Attacking and misusing such network could cause destructive consequences. It is therefore necessary to integrate security requirements into the design of VANETs and defend VANET systems against misbehavior, in order to ensure correct and smooth operations of the network. In this paper, we propose a security system for VANETs to achieve privacy desired by vehicles and traceability required by law enforcement authorities, in addition to satisfying fundamental security requirements including authentication, nonrepudiation, message integrity, and confidentiality. Moreover, we propose a privacy-preserving defense technique for network authorities to handle misbehavior in VANET access, considering the challenge that privacy provides avenue for misbehavior. The proposed system employs an identity-based cryptosystem where certificates are not needed for authentication. We show the fulfillment and feasibility of our system with respect to the security goals and efficiency. © 2010 IEEE.