Mitigation of MQTT Protocol Vulnerability by Implementing LightWeight Encryption Algorithms on IoT Constrained Devices

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT) is a promising and an emerging technology in which a huge number of devices are activated to communicate, process, and exchange information to other devices, servers, or applications. The communication link could be between people, devices, or machine to machine, resulting in a massive network of connected devices. Due to the increase in the range of applications, the attack surface has also been increased. Since the data transfer through IoT network is critical so confidentiality is a major concern. However, the sensors and devices used in IoT networks are resourceconstrained. Thus, it demands a lightweight mechanism by utilizing a lightweight protocol and cryptography. We can achieve confidentiality by using secure shell (SSH) and transport layer security (TLS) protocol, however these have more overheads for sensor/ edge devices in IoT networks. Therefore, we need to embed security mechanisms in the application layer lightweight protocol. In this thesis, we demonstrate encryption of live temperature sensor data and evaluating low-resource devices on the basis of a lightweight encryption algorithm to achieve confidentiality in MQTT protocol-based networks. We also present power consumption results using Contiki OS-based cooja simulator for low resource node incorporating with MQTT protocol. Further, we presented the discharge graph of battery-operated IoT devices.