ZAMA: A ZKP-Based Anonymous Mutual Authentication Scheme for the IoV

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a typical application of mobile Internet of Things (IoT), which aims to improve road conditions and enhance the driving experience. However, the issue of identity leakage has drawn a major privacy concern during the vehicle's authentication. It is impractical to apply traditional anonymous authentication methods directly to the IoV system due to their complex computation. To enhance the user's privacy and the service's efficiency, we propose a novel efficient anonymous authentication approach for the IoV based on the zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). We achieve the user's strong anonymity and authenticity based on the Fujisaki–Okamoto Commitment algorithm. In addition, the third trusted authority can effectively trace users by tracking users' verification keys. It holds the user's traceability when a violation occurs. Meanwhile, we design a fast reconnection procedure based on the security context from the last access, which can reduce the computation overhead effectively. Through the security analysis, it proves that our scheme provides the anonymity, mutual authenticity, unlinkability, traceability, forward security, and replay-attack resistance. The experimental results indicate that our scheme has a better performance compared with the classic protocols in the IoV.