HAGAR: Hashgraph-based Aggregated Communication and Remote Attestation

ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers: Workshops and Special Sessions (CF Companion), pp. 10–16

Abstract

Over the past decade, an exponential rise in the deployment of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices engulfed our surroundings. IoT devices have spread into domains like personal smart devices, industrial applications, military applications, and medical applications, to name a few. Brittle security features and large deployment in safety-critical systems make IoT devices an attractive target for cyberattacks. Large collections of data, ranging from personal, and oversensitive to financial data, make it crucial to safeguard IoT applications and data communication from cybercriminals. One key technique to deal with these cyberattacks is Remote Attestation (RA), in which a verifier remotely checks the sanity of an IoT device's firmware. However, implementing RA over large IoT networks can be challenging due to the dynamic nature of the network and the real-time aggregation of attestation results. We propose 'HAGAR: Hashgraph-based Aggregated Communication and Remote Attestation' to address the aforesaid challenges. HAGAR is a distributed ledger based on a hashgraph architecture that not only provides decentralized security guarantees like traditional blockchain technology, but also makes communication fast and thus offers continuous attestation aggregation in large IoT networks. We use the features of Hashgraphs for data aggregation in remote attestation mechanisms for large dynamic IoT networks.

Authors 4

1. Jo Vliegen

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   ES&S, COSIC, ESAT, KU Leuven

2. Md Masoom Rabbani

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   ES&S, COSIC, ESAT, KU Leuven

3. Wouter Hellemans

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   ES&S, COSIC, ESAT, KU Leuven

4. Nele Mentens Aachen

   Leiden University · KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   ES&S, COSIC, ESAT, KU Leuven and LIACS, Leiden University, The Netherlands