Multilayer Hub Access Control for IoT Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
IoT devices lack effective access control mechanisms, leading to security vulnerabilities as they often rely solely on user-level authentication, allowing unauthorized access and potential malicious interactions, especially with rogue applications and unverified network domains.
Innovation Solution
A multilayer access control system is implemented, comprising a hub with a processor and a multilayer access control layer that characterizes access requests based on users, applications, and network domains, applying rules to determine whether to allow or deny access, thereby enhancing security without modifying the IoT devices' hardware or software.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a multilayer access control system is implemented, then security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The access control system is divided into multiple independent layers (user authentication layer, application authentication layer, device authentication layer, and command filtering layer). Each layer handles specific authentication and authorization tasks independently, allowing the complex security function to be broken down into manageable segments that can be implemented and maintained separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hub device as an intermediary between remote host devices and IoT devices. The hub contains the multilayer access control logic and acts as a mediator that intercepts, analyzes, and filters access requests before they reach the target IoT devices. This intermediary approach centralizes the complexity in the hub rather than requiring complex changes to each IoT device.
2Reliability
If access control filtering is applied at the hub, then unauthorized access is prevented, but network communication overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary authentication and authorization checks at the hub before allowing commands to pass through to IoT devices. User credentials, application permissions, and device access rights are verified in advance, and access policies are pre-configured. This preliminary action prevents unauthorized commands from reaching the devices, avoiding the need for complex post-execution security checks.
Solution Approach 2:
The access control system is designed to automatically authenticate users, verify application permissions, and filter commands without requiring manual intervention. The hub autonomously evaluates access requests against pre-configured policies and makes acceptance or rejection decisions automatically, reducing processing time compared to manual security verification.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for controlling accesses to network enabled devices includes a network interface over which a hub communicates with network enabled devices, a processor, and a multilayer access control layer. The access control layer includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to detect, at the hub, a request representing an attempt by an application executing on a remote host device to access a network enabled device communicatively coupled to the hub, characterize the request according to a user of the remote host device, the application making the attempt, and the network enabled device, and determine whether to allow or deny the request based upon the characterization and a plurality of rules. The rules may include definitions of access rights, with respect to the network enabled device, for users, applications, commands or queries made by applications, remote host devices, and network domains.