International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Vrutti Mistry, Yassir Farooqui, Amit Barve
Abstract: The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices across smart homes, healthcare systems, and industrial environments has intensified the need for robust and adaptive security mechanisms in multi-user settings. Traditional password management approaches remain widely deployed; however, they suffer from persistent vulnerabilities including weak password selection, credential reuse across services, and the absence of structured lifecycle management mechanisms. This paper presents a systematic review of existing authentication, password management, and key lifecycle strategies applicable to multi-user IoT ecosystems. The study follows a structured review methodology to analyze and synthesize contemporary research contributions in the areas of context-aware authentication, secure key rotation, password expiry mechanisms, and lightweight cryptographic implementations. A comparative evaluation of diverse security techniques—such as one-time passwords (OTPs), zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), symmetric and public-key cryptographic schemes, and machine learning-based threat detection models—is conducted with particular attention to device resource constraints, scalability challenges, and operational efficiency. Conceptual models, analytical tables, and comparative charts are utilized to highlight trade-offs between security strength, computational overhead, and system performance. The review identifies significant research gaps in integrating dynamic key rotation and expiry mechanisms into holistic, context-aware security architectures tailored for multi-user IoT environments. Finally, the paper outlines future research directions aimed at developing scalable, resource-efficient, and adaptive password lifecycle management frameworks for next-generation IoT systems. management frameworks for next-generation IoT systems.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20854861
