Abstract
The demand for mobile ad-hoc networks is increased tremendously, almost in every application area. The wireless and infrastructure-less features of these networks have explored a plethora of application areas. Apart from the numerous benefits of using MANets, certain issues hinder the users from exploring its full potential. Security is one of the primary issues that need to be addressed. This paper presents a secure authentication framework for mobile ad-hoc networks. The framework uses hybrid encryption techniques and authenticates the nodes in a distributed manner. The framework takes into consideration the resource-constrained devices in mobile ad-hoc networks and uses lightweight encryption techniques to achieve a secure environment.