{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T02:55:17Z","timestamp":1777431317822,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,27]],"date-time":"2023-07-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690416000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"King Saud University","award":["RSP2023R476"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RSP2023R476"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) obtains more attention due to their wide range of applications such as underwater oil field discovery, Tsunami monitoring systems, surveillance systems, and many more. In such a resource-constrained environment, sensors are more vulnerable to malicious attacks. Node authentication and secure communication is one of the vital issues in UWSNs. In this study, a secure and lightweight key management framework for UWSNs is proposed. The proposed framework includes key generation, key distribution, revocation, and authentication mechanisms along with lightweight implementation, and scalability. We use an elliptic curve-based algorithm for key distribution, and certificate revocation list (CRL) for key revocation. We also examine the performance of the proposed framework taking into account the amount of communication overhead as well as the level of security. The simulation results show that the proposed framework provides better security with less communication overhead compared to existing frameworks. This framework can be used for secure data communication in UWSNs, which has various applications in oceanography, environmental monitoring, and military operations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym15081484","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,27]],"date-time":"2023-07-27T01:27:46Z","timestamp":1690421266000},"page":"1484","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Enhancing Security and Efficiency in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: A Lightweight Key Management Framework"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Sabir","family":"Shah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, International Islamic University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}]},{"given":"Asim","family":"Munir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, International Islamic University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0974-6154","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abdul","family":"Waheed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Women University, Swabi 23430, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9750-3883","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amerah","family":"Alabrah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Systems, College of Computer and Information Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11543, Saudi Arabia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6826-8458","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muaadh","family":"Mukred","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Information Science & Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi Selangor 43600, Malaysia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6385-5511","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Farhan","family":"Amin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8580-0223","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abdu","family":"Salam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan 23200, Pakistan"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"A software-defined multi-modal wireless sensor network for ocean monitoring","volume":"1","author":"Luo","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. 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