An Integrated Two-Factor Authentication Scheme for Smart Communications and Control Systems

Abstract

Fast and reliable authentication is a crucial requirement of communications networks and has various research challenges in an Internet of Things (IoT) environment. In IoT-based applications, as fast and user-friendly access and high security are required simultaneously, biometric identification of the user, such as the face, iris, or fingerprint, is broadly employed as an authentication approach. Moreover, a so-called multi-factor authentication that combines user identification with other identification information, including token information and device identity, is used to enhance the authentication security level. This paper proposes a novel two-factor authentication scheme for intelligent communication and control systems by utilizing the watermarking technique to incorporate the mobile device authentication component into the user’s facial recognition image. Our proposed scheme offers user-friendliness while improving user security and privacy and reducing authentication information exchange procedures to provide a secure and lightweight schema in real applications. The proposed scheme’s security advantages are validated using the widely accepted Burrows–Abadi–Needham (BAN) logic and experimentally assessed using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) simulator tool. Finally, our experimental results show that the proposed authentication scheme is an innovative solution for a smart-home control system, such as a smart lock door operation.