Title: Lightweight and resilient blockchain-enabled mutual authentication and key establishment protocol for smart health devices in IoMT

Authors: Rachida Hireche; Houssem Mansouri; Yasmine Harbi; Al-Sakib Khan Pathan

Addresses: LRSD Laboratory, Ferhat Abbas University Setif 1, Setif, Algeria ' LRSD Laboratory, Ferhat Abbas University Setif 1, Setif, Algeria ' LRSD Laboratory, Ferhat Abbas University Setif 1, Setif, Algeria ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, United International University, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh

Abstract: Rapid expansion of wireless body area networks (WBANs) has advanced the healthcare services. However, open communication channels pose significant security challenges. This study presents a lightweight mutual authentication and key agreement protocol for blockchain-enabled internet-of-medical-things (IoMT) systems. The scheme integrates biometric-based sensor management and employs smart contracts with system revocation lists to ensure the timely exclusion of compromised entities. By combining fog computing with blockchain, the framework offloads intensive computations from IoMT devices, thereby enhancing their scalability and efficiency. Security is strengthened through elliptic curve cryptography, cryptographic hash functions, and lightweight primitives, while formal validation using Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic and the automated-validation-of-internet-security (AVISPA) tools confirms resistance to adversarial attacks. Moreover, it was implemented using the Ethereum platform and evaluated using Hyperledger-Caliper, demonstrating lower latency and higher throughput. A comparative analysis with relevant recent works in terms of performance and security requirements also proves its reliability and robustness.

Keywords: e-healthcare; elliptic curve cryptography; ECC; hash function; internet-of-medical-thing; IoMT; smart contract; wireless body area network; WBAN.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2026.152540

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2026 Vol.51 No.3, pp.159 - 187

Received: 26 Jan 2025
Accepted: 29 Sep 2025
Published online: 26 Mar 2026 *

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