Identity-Based Authentication in VANETs: A Review

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are essential components of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Vehicular Social Networks (VSN). As the number of connected vehicles continues to grow, the importance of ensuring security and privacy within VANETs becomes paramount. Robust authentication protocols are essential to safeguard vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, given the vulnerability of the open wireless communication medium in VANETs to interception and manipulation. While researchers are actively developing authentication and privacy schemes to secure message exchanges, existing solutions have not fully satisfied all the security and privacy requirements, thereby fueling ongoing research in this field. A significant challenge in this context is balancing the conflicting goals of privacy—protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access—and traceability—ensuring accountability by identifying malicious actors. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of VANETs, covering their key components, prevalent attack types, and the security and privacy prerequisites essential for effective authentication and privacy mechanisms. Specifically, the paper delves into the realm of identity-based authentication schemes within VANETs, subjecting them to rigorous evaluation based on security, privacy, and scalability. The primary objective is to empower the research community to design and implement efficient and secure authentication schemes, minimizing communication and computational overhead while ensuring resilience against a multitude of potential attacks.