Blockchain-Based Secure Mutual Authentication Scheme for Drone-GSS Communication in Internet of Drones Environment

Drones are becoming increasingly common and are used for a variety of purposes, such as delivery, military, and surveillance. They are becoming more capable and available owing to technological advancements including miniaturization, lightweight materials, and improved sensors. As technology advances, the Internet of Drones (IoD) has the potential to revolutionize key industries and become more prevalent and indispensable to our everyday lives. However, drones can be compromised and operated by unauthorized users if their networks are not effectively secured against cyberattacks, thereby seriously jeopardizing public safety and privacy. To avert unauthorized access to the drone and its data, and guarantee the drone’s reliable functioning, a secure authentication mechanism between a drone and its ground station server (GSS) is crucial. Additionally, as drone devices often have small batteries and little memory storage, it is important to use lightweight security approaches. To address these problems, a lightweight blockchain-assisted and PUF-based mutual authentication system for drone-GSS authentication has been proposed in this paper. This system incorporates blockchain principles to develop security mechanisms that can overcome the shortcomings of the IoD. The proposed protocol is resilient against various security attacks, proved through both informal and formal security analysis. Moreover, the proposed scheme’s effectiveness has been compared with that of state-of-the-art drone authentication techniques.