Towards secure resource sharing for impromptu collaboration in pervasive computing

ABSTRACT

Access control in mobile and pervasive computing is a complex issue, with many aspects relating to the establishment, management, and enforcement of methods and policies that allow mobile devices to share resources with each other. Communication between mobile devices can arise spontaneously, involve the sharing of few resources between heterogeneous platforms, and only need to be maintained for a short time. Additionally, the devices often communicate with each other a single time, and have no pre-shared secret or a priori knowledge of the other device. In this paper we propose a secure solution for providing controlled access to local resources in mobile and pervasive computing environments. Our solution incorporates demonstrative verification of security credentials, a key-based capability delegation, and easy to use access control features in order to provide simple access with low maintenance costs. It is particularly designed for one-time-only communication between mobile-to-mobile or mobile-to-kiosk devices.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

Additional Classification:
  E. Data
  E.3 DATA ENCRYPTION
  E.4 CODING AND INFORMATION THEORY

General Terms:
Algorithms, Security

Keywords:
access control, mobile computing, pervasive computing