ZigBee leverages the underlying security services of the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer. The 802.15.4 MAC layer supports the AES algorithm with a 128-bit key for both encryption/decryption as well as data integrity by appending a MAC to the data frame (http://www.libelium.com/security-802-15-4-zigbee/). These security services are optional, however, and ZigBee devices can be configured to not use either the encryption or MAC capabilities built into the protocol. In fact, there are multiple security options available, as described in the following table:
|
ZigBee security configuration |
Description |
|
No security |
No encryption and no data authentication |
|
AES-CBC-MAC-32 |
Data authentication using a 32-bit MAC, no encryption |
