Security analysis of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard

A wireless body area network (WBAN) consists of low‐power devices that are capable of sensing, processing, and wireless communication. WBANs can be used in many applications such as military, ubiquitous health care, entertainment, and sport. The IEEE Std 802.15.6‐2012 is the latest international standard for WBAN. In this paper, we scrutinize the security structure of the IEEE 802.15.6‐2012 standard and perform a security analysis on the cryptographic protocols in the standard. We show that some protocols have subtle security problems and are vulnerable to different attacks. Such vulnerabilities neutralize the security provisions in the standard specifically for medical applications that deal with sensitive information and security problems can be life‐threatening. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.