LoRaWAN is a wireless protocol which allows long-range low-power communications and therefore uses symmetric keys for authentication and encryption. To ease integration and deployment, the devices are pre-provisioned with keys at the production process. Here, often secure elements are utilized to save the key tamper-proof in the device. But in some cases keys are not trustworthy for example if they are transferred via an insecure channel e. g. via e-mail. This has a strong impact on the security of the overall system and the keys need to be re-provisioned.
The master thesis will be supervised by DEVITY (https://devity.eu/). Please contact Sven Uthe (sven.uthe@devity.eu).
The goal of this thesis is to:
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Analyze different devices, how they can be re-provisioned with new keys.
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Write a tool to automate the key generation and provisioning process.
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Once the key re-provisioning is implemented, find a way to store and transfer the keys in an encrypted format.
References:
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https://lora-alliance.org/resource-hub/lorawanr-specification-v11
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Jeon, Y., Ju, H. I., & Yoon, S. (2018, January). Design of an LPWAN communication module based on secure element for smart parking application. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE)
(pp. 1-2). IEEE. -
Example Devices:
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MKR-WAN-1310 (https://store.arduino.cc/mkr-wan-1310)
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TTGO-LORA32 (https://github.com/LilyGO/TTGO-LORA32)
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Requirements:
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Good C programming skills.
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Good knowledge of cryptographic protocols.
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Interest in the development of secure key management.
