pith. sign in

arxiv: 1907.07316 · v1 · pith:X3USDFRDnew · submitted 2019-07-17 · 💻 cs.CR

On the challenges of data provenance in the Internet of Things

Mahmoud Elkhodr , Zuhaib Bari Mufti This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-24 20:41 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 💻 cs.CR
keywords data provenanceInternet of ThingsIoT securitysmart citiesdata tracingdata origin verification
0
0 comments X

The pith

Tracing the source of data and verifying its origin is vital for security in IoT environments like smart cities.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper argues that the Internet of Things creates dynamic environments where devices communicate ubiquitously and share information across networks, as seen in smart homes and smart cities with sensors and actuators. In these settings, security depends on the ability to trace data sources and confirm origins. Data provenance is presented as the mechanism that supports this tracing. The work explores the requirements for provenance, its applications in IoT, and the challenges to its implementation. A reader would care because without it, verifying data trustworthiness in automated systems becomes difficult.

Core claim

In IoT environments where devices communicate ubiquitously and networks interconnect to share information and trigger events, tracing the source of data and verifying its origin is vital for security. Data provenance enables this tracing. The paper examines the requirements and applications of data provenance in the IoT along with the challenges to its realisation.

What carries the argument

Data provenance as the process of tracing the source of data and verifying its origin within IoT systems.

If this is right

  • Security in IoT depends on provenance to trace data sources across interconnected networks.
  • Provenance applies to smart city setups with distributed sensors and actuators.
  • Requirements for provenance must account for ubiquitous device communication.
  • Challenges in realisation arise from the dynamic and rich nature of IoT environments.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Provenance mechanisms could support trust decisions in automated IoT actuation events.
  • Integration of provenance with existing IoT communication protocols remains an open neighbouring problem.
  • Resource constraints in IoT devices may limit the granularity of provenance records.

Load-bearing premise

Tracing the source of data and verifying its origin is both feasible and the key requirement for security in dynamic IoT environments.

What would settle it

An IoT deployment where data origin verification proves unnecessary for security or where provenance tracking cannot be implemented due to the scale and heterogeneity of the network.

read the original abstract

The IoT is described as a smart interactive environment where devices communicate together ubiquitously sometimes in the background, performing functions on behalf of the users and offering many advanced services to them. Examples range from simple smart home applications such as ambient intelligence and remote controlling functionalities to more advanced smart cities setups. A smart IoT city for instance will encompass a network of many interconnected networks where various sensors and actuators distributed across many areas of the city share information, create knowledge and trigger actuation events. In such a dynamic and rich environment, it is vital for security to trace the source of data and verify its origin. This where data provenance in the IoT come to play. This work attempts to explore requirements and applications of data provenance in the IoT and the challenges pertaining to its realisation.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

1 major / 1 minor

Summary. The manuscript is a survey paper on data provenance in the Internet of Things. It characterizes the IoT as a ubiquitous smart interactive environment spanning simple smart-home applications to complex smart-city networks of sensors and actuators. It asserts that tracing data sources and verifying origins is vital for security in such settings and states that the work explores requirements, applications, and challenges pertaining to the realization of data provenance in IoT.

Significance. A thorough survey organizing requirements, applications, and challenges could provide a useful entry point for researchers in IoT security. However, the manuscript advances no novel mechanisms, theorems, empirical results, or falsifiable predictions; its value would rest entirely on the completeness and accuracy of the literature synthesis, which cannot be evaluated from the provided abstract alone.

major comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] Abstract: the central motivational claim that 'it is vital for security to trace the source of data and verify its origin' is asserted without any supporting references, security-incident examples, or citations to prior work showing provenance's role in mitigating attacks. This assertion is load-bearing for the decision to survey the topic.
minor comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] Abstract: the sentence 'This where data provenance in the IoT come to play.' contains a grammatical error and missing verb; it should be revised for clarity and correctness.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

1 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their comments on our survey manuscript. We address the single major comment below and will revise the abstract accordingly.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the central motivational claim that 'it is vital for security to trace the source of data and verify its origin' is asserted without any supporting references, security-incident examples, or citations to prior work showing provenance's role in mitigating attacks. This assertion is load-bearing for the decision to survey the topic.

    Authors: We agree that the abstract would be strengthened by explicit citations supporting this claim. The body of the survey already synthesizes literature on provenance for IoT security (including attack scenarios), but the abstract itself does not cite them. In the revised manuscript we will add 1-2 concise citations to the abstract that point to established results on provenance mitigating specific IoT attacks (e.g., data tampering or sensor spoofing). revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity

full rationale

The paper is a survey that motivates the importance of data provenance for IoT security and then catalogs requirements, applications, and challenges. It contains no equations, derivations, fitted parameters, predictions, or load-bearing self-citations. The central statements are definitional and motivational rather than a derivation chain that reduces to its own inputs by construction; the text is therefore self-contained with no circular steps.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

This is a survey-style exploration paper; the abstract introduces no free parameters, axioms, or invented entities.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5655 in / 880 out tokens · 18086 ms · 2026-05-24T20:41:19.996399+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

35 extracted references · 35 canonical work pages

  1. [1]

    Provenance: a future history,

    J. Cheney, S. Chong, N. Foster, M. Seltzer, and S. Vansummeren, "Provenance: a future history," in Proceedings of the 24th ACM SIGPLAN conference companion on Object oriented programming systems languages and applications, 2009, pp. 957-964: ACM

    work page 2009

  2. [2]

    A Survey of Provenance in Wireless Sensor Networks,

    G. Dogan, "A Survey of Provenance in Wireless Sensor Networks," Adhoc & Sensor Wireless Networks, vol. 31, 2016

    work page 2016

  3. [3]

    Provenance aware sensor networks for real -time data analysis,

    R. Lange, "Provenance aware sensor networks for real -time data analysis," University of Twente, 2010

    work page 2010

  4. [4]

    The Case of the Fake Picasso: Preventing History Forgery with Secure Provenance,

    R. Hasan, R. Sion, and M. Winslett, "The Case of the Fake Picasso: Preventing History Forgery with Secure Provenance," in FAST, 2009, vol. 9, pp. 1-14

    work page 2009

  5. [5]

    Data provenance in the internet of things,

    S. Bauer and D. Schreckling, "Data provenance in the internet of things," in EU Project COMPOSE, Conference Seminar, 2013

    work page 2013

  6. [6]

    Computer security,

    D. Gollmann, "Computer security," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 544-554, 2010

    work page 2010

  7. [7]

    Distributed monitoring and forensics in overlay networks,

    A. Singh, P. Maniatis, T. Roscoe, and P. Druschel, "Distributed monitoring and forensics in overlay networks," 2006: EuroSys

    work page 2006

  8. [8]

    Provenance -aware secure networks,

    W. Zhu, E. Cronin, and B. T. Loo, "Provenance -aware secure networks," Departmental Papers (CIS), p. 387, 2008

    work page 2008

  9. [9]

    Provenance-aware declarative secure networks,

    W. Zhou, E. Cronin, and B. T. Loo, "Provenance-aware declarative secure networks," 2007

    work page 2007

  10. [10]

    Network support for IP traceback,

    S. Savage, D. Wetherall, A. Karlin, and T. Anderson, "Network support for IP traceback," IEEE/ACM transactions on networking, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 226-237, 2001. International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks (IJWMN) Vol. 11, No. 3, June 2019 51

    work page 2001

  11. [11]

    A provenance based mechanism to identify malicious packet dropping adversaries in sensor networks,

    S. Sultana, E. Bertino, and M. Shehab, "A provenance based mechanism to identify malicious packet dropping adversaries in sensor networks," in Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (ICDCSW), 2011 31st International Conference on, 2011, pp. 332-338: IEEE

    work page 2011

  12. [12]

    The role of trust management in distributed systems security,

    M. Blaze, J. Feigenbaum, J. Ioannidis, and A. D. Keromytis, "The role of trust management in distributed systems security," in Secure Internet Programming: Springer, 1999, pp. 185 -210

    work page 1999

  13. [13]

    Pronet: Network trust assessment based on incomplete provenance,

    K. Govindan et al., "Pronet: Network trust assessment based on incomplete provenance," in MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE, 2011 -MILCOM 2011, 2011, pp. 1213 -1218: IEEE

    work page 2011

  14. [14]

    Muniswamy -Reddy, Foundations for provenance -aware systems

    K.-K. Muniswamy -Reddy, Foundations for provenance -aware systems. Harvard University Cambridge, 2010

    work page 2010

  15. [15]

    Provenance-based trustworthiness assessment in sensor networks,

    H.-S. Lim, Y. -S. Moon, and E. Bertino, "Provenance-based trustworthiness assessment in sensor networks," in Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Data Management for Sensor Networks, 2010, pp. 2-7: ACM

    work page 2010

  16. [16]

    Provenance Information in the Web of Data,

    O. Hartig, "Provenance Information in the Web of Data," LDOW, vol. 538, 2 009

    work page

  17. [17]

    IoT Data Provenance Implementation Challenges,

    A. Alkhalil and R. A. Ramadan, "IoT Data Provenance Implementation Challenges," Procedia Computer Science, vol. 109, pp. 1134-1139, 2017

    work page 2017

  18. [18]

    Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road ahead,

    S. Sicari, A. Rizzardi, L. A. Grieco, and A. Coen -Porisini, "Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road ahead," Computer networks, vol. 76, pp. 146-164, 2015

    work page 2015

  19. [19]

    The Internet of Things (IoT): Applications, investments, and challenges for enterprises,

    I. Lee and K. Lee, "The Internet of Things (IoT): Applications, investments, and challenges for enterprises," Business Horizons, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 431-440, 2015

    work page 2015

  20. [20]

    Big data privacy in the internet of things era,

    C. Perera, R. Ranjan, L. Wang, S. U. Khan, and A. Y. Zomaya, "Big data privacy in the internet of things era," IT Professional, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 32-39, 2015

    work page 2015

  21. [21]

    A Study on Big Data: Issues, Challenges and Applications,

    S. Sahu and Y. Dhote, "A Study on Big Data: Issues, Challenges and Applications," International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering (IJIRCCE), vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 10611-10616, 2016

    work page 2016

  22. [22]

    Storing, indexing and querying large provenance data sets as RDF g raphs in apache HBase,

    A. Chebotko, J. Abraham, P. Brazier, A. Piazza, A. Kashlev, and S. Lu, "Storing, indexing and querying large provenance data sets as RDF g raphs in apache HBase," in Services (SERVICES), 2013 IEEE Ninth World Congress on, 2013, pp. 1-8: IEEE

    work page 2013

  23. [23]

    Short paper: IoT: Challenges, projects, architectures,

    V. Gazis et al., "Short paper: IoT: Challenges, projects, architectures," in Intelligence in Next Generation Networks (ICIN), 2015 18th International Conference on, 2015, pp. 145-147: IEEE

    work page 2015

  24. [24]

    Taming the interoperability challenges of complex iot systems,

    P. Grace, J. Barbosa, B. Pickering, and M. Surridge, "Taming the interoperability challenges of complex iot systems," in Proceedings of the 1st ACM Workshop on Middleware for Context -Aware Applications in the IoT, 2014, pp. 1-6: ACM

    work page 2014

  25. [25]

    Challenges for Database Management in the Internet of Things,

    J. Cooper and A. James, "Challenges for Database Management in the Internet of Things," IETE Technical Review, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 320-329, 2009/09/01 2009

    work page 2009

  26. [26]

    A survey on the ietf protocol suite for the internet of things: Standards, challenges, and opportunities,

    Z. Sheng, S. Yang, Y. Yu, A. Vasilakos, J. Mccann, and K. Leung, "A survey on the ietf protocol suite for the internet of things: Standards, challenges, and opportunities," IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 91-98, 2013

    work page 2013

  27. [27]

    An experimental study of a reliable IoT gateway,

    B. Kang and H. Choo, "An experimental study of a reliable IoT gateway," ICT Express , 2017/04/27/ 2017. International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks (IJWMN) Vol. 11, No. 3, June 2019 52

    work page 2017

  28. [28]

    Provenance for computational tasks: A survey,

    J. Freire, D. Koop, E. Santos, C. T. J. C. i. S. Silva, and Engineering, "Provenance for computational tasks: A survey," vol. 10, no. 3, 2008

    work page 2008

  29. [29]

    The Case for Fine -Grained St ream Provenance,

    B. Glavic, K. S. Esmaili, P. M. Fischer, and N. Tatbul, "The Case for Fine -Grained St ream Provenance," in BTW Workshops, 2011, vol. 11, pp. 58-61

    work page 2011

  30. [30]

    Inferring fine -grained data provenance in stream data processing: reduced storage cost, high accuracy,

    M. R. Huq, A. Wombacher, and P. M. Apers, "Inferring fine -grained data provenance in stream data processing: reduced storage cost, high accuracy," in International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2011, pp. 118-127: Springer

    work page 2011

  31. [31]

    Provenance in sensornet republishing,

    U. Park and J. Heidemann, "Provenance in sensornet republishing," in International Provenance and Annotation Workshop, 2008, pp. 280-292: Springer

    work page 2008

  32. [32]

    A survey of data provenance in e -science,

    Y. L. Simmhan, B. Plale, and D. J. A. S. R. Gannon, "A survey of data provenance in e -science," vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 31-36, 2005

    work page 2005

  33. [33]

    Efficient provenance storage,

    A. P. Chapman, H. V. Jagadish, and P. Ramanan, "Efficient provenance storage," in Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, 2008, pp. 993 -1006: ACM

    work page 2008

  34. [34]

    Provenance -aware sensor data storage,

    J. Ledlie, C. Ng, and D. A. Holland, "Provenance -aware sensor data storage," in Data Engineering Workshops, 2005. 21st International Conference on, 2005, pp. 1189 -1189: IEEE

    work page 2005

  35. [35]

    The provenance of electronic data,

    L. Moreau et al., "The provenance of electronic data," vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 52-58, 2008

    work page 2008