How to obfuscate execution of protocols in an ad hoc radio network?

We consider an ad hoc radio network in which nodes perform some distributed algorithms. We provide a framework, that at the cost of increasing time complexity, prevents an outer, passive adversary from gaining significant information about the execution of the algorithm. The main idea we utilize is adding some extra obfuscating rounds to conceal the real execution. Despite the fact that we assume a relatively weak model of the adversary, trying to solve the problem, we encounter several non-trivial issues. First of all, the proposed method needs to be universal and work in on-line mode. Moreover, the method should entail possibly small time overhead and provide a provable security. Finding a satisfactory solution is particularly difficult due to the very restrictive, in terms of nodes capabilities, communication model. The main result presented in this paper is an efficient general method for obfuscating an execution of any underlying algorithm and its rigid analysis. We provide security guarantees against a passive adversary, with an ability of eavesdropping every transmission in the network, that aims at learning the execution of the algorithm. We also present a specialized algorithm for a secure listing of all present (active) nodes, that does not reveal any substantial information about the network to the outer adversary. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.