A Survey on Context-based Co-presence Detection Techniques

Abstract: In this paper, we present a systematic survey on the contextual information based proximity detection techniques. These techniques are heavily used for improving security and usability in Zero-Interaction based Co-presence Detection and Authentication (ZICDA) systems. In particular, the survey includes a discussion on the possible adversary and communication models along with the existing security attacks on ZICDA systems, and it reviews the state-of-the-art proximity detection techniques that make use of contextual information. These proximity detection techniques are commonly referred to as Contextual Co-presence (COCO) protocols, which dynamically collect and use contextual information to improve the security of ZICDA systems during the proximity verification process. Finally, we summarize the significant challenges and suggest possible innovative and efficient future solutions for securely detecting co-presence between devices in the presence of adversaries. The proximity verification techniques presented in the literature usually involve trade-offs between metrics such as efficiency, security, deployment cost, and usability. At present, there is no ideal solution which adequately addresses the trade-off between these metrics. Therefore, we trust that this review gives an insight into the strengths and shortcomings of the known research methodologies and pave the way for the design of future practical, secure, and efficient solutions.