Cryptanalysis and Improvement of the SMEP-IoV Protocol: A Secure and Lightweight Protocol for Message Exchange in IoV Paradigm

Gelare Oudi Ghadim; Parvin Rastegari; Mohammad Dakhilalian; Faramarz Hendessi; Shahrzad Saremi; Rania Shibl; Yassine Himeur; Shadi Atalla; Wathiq Mansoor

doi:10.3390/iot7020031

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Cryptanalysis and Improvement of the SMEP-IoV Protocol: A Secure and Lightweight Protocol for Message Exchange in IoV Paradigm

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Cryptanalysis and Improvement of the SMEP-IoV Protocol: A Secure and Lightweight Protocol for Message Exchange in IoV Paradigm

Gelare Oudi Ghadim, Parvin Rastegari, Mohammad Dakhilalian, Faramarz Hendessi, Shahrzad Saremi, Rania Shibl, Yassine Himeur, Shadi Atalla and Wathiq Mansoor

IoT, Vol.7(2), pp.1-30

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/iot7020031

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Abstract

IoV

message authentication

security

tamarin prover

ProVerif simulation

BAN logic

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a rapidly evolving technology that provides real-time connectivity, enhanced road safety, and reduced traffic congestion; however, its inherently open communication channels expose it to serious security and privacy threats. In 2021, Chaudhry proposed SMEP-IoV, a lightweight message authentication protocol designed to satisfy essential security requirements. This paper presents a comprehensive security analysis of SMEP-IoV and reveals several serious vulnerabilities. Specifically, sensitive credentials are stored in plaintext without tamper-resistant protection, and both authentication and session key derivation depend directly on these credentials. These structural flaws allow an adversary to extract the stored secrets, generate valid authentication messages, and derive the established session key, enabling vehicle impersonation and session key disclosure attacks. Moreover, compromise of long-term secrets facilitates key compromise impersonation attacks. It also fails to ensure anonymity and perfect forward secrecy. To address these issues, we propose an enhanced authentication protocol for resource-constrained IoV environments, leveraging a three-factor authentication mechanism combined with lightweight cryptographic primitives. Formal security analyses using BAN logic, Tamarin, and ProVerif confirm its resilience against known attacks, while NS-3 simulations validate its scalability, high throughput, and low End-to-End Delay (E2ED). The results highlight the protocol as a robust, efficient, and scalable solution for large-scale IoV deployments.

Details

Title: Cryptanalysis and Improvement of the SMEP-IoV Protocol: A Secure and Lightweight Protocol for Message Exchange in IoV Paradigm
Authors: Gelare Oudi Ghadim - Isfahan University of Technology
Parvin Rastegari - Isfahan University of Technology
Mohammad Dakhilalian - Isfahan University of Technology
Faramarz Hendessi - Isfahan University of Technology
Shahrzad Saremi (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Rania Shibl - University of the Sunshine Coast
Yassine Himeur - University of Dubai
Shadi Atalla - University of Dubai
Wathiq Mansoor - American University of Iraq Baghdad
Publication details: IoT, Vol.7(2), pp.1-30
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.3390/iot7020031
ISSN: 2624-831X
Copyright note: © 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
Data Availability: This is a theoretical and analytical study. The main contribution of the paper is the security analysis, cryptanalysis, and improvement of an existing cryptographic protocol. All evaluations are performed through formal security proofs, complexity analysis, and protocol design techniques. No experimental, observational, or user-related data were collected, processed, or analyzed in this study.
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991219627902621
Output Type: Journal article

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