Revisiting Error-Correction in Precommitment Distance-Bounding Protocols

Distance-bounding (DB) protocols are used to verify the physical proximity of two devices. DB can be used to establish trusted ad-hoc connections in the industrial Internet-of-Things, e.g., nodes can verify they are deployed in the same location and monitoring the same piece of equipment. Thresholds and error correction codes (ECCs) are two methods to provide error-resilience for DB protocols working in noisy environments. However, the threshold method adds overheads and the ECC method increases the adversary success probability, compared to threshold, when implemented in precommitment DB protocols. In this article, we investigate the ECC method and demonstrate that designers can mitigate increased adversary success probability by using nonsystematic codes. To demonstrate this idea, we compare a prominent precommitment protocol by Brands and Chaum (BC) integrated with different types of ECCs with two existing error-resilience methods, showing how nonsystematic codes provide improved protocol security. Moreover, We further evaluate the BC protocol with nonsystematic ECCs and discuss how to configure protocols to minimize the protocol failure rate, while maintaining adequate attack success probability.