Security

Possible routing attacks

Attacks using a modification

A malicious node announces better routes than the other nodes in order to be inserted into the network.

• Redirection by changing the route sequence number.

• Redirection with a modified hop count.

• Denial Of Service (DOS) attacks with modified source routes.

  • A malicious node is inserted in the network through one of the previous techniques.

  • The malicious node changes the packet headers it receives.

  • The packets will not reach the destination.

  • The transmission is aborted.

DOS attacks with modified source routes

Attacks using impersonation

Usurpation of the identity of another node to perform changes.

• Spoofing MAC address of other nodes.

• Forming loops by spoofing MAC address.

  • A malicious node M can listen to all nodes.

  • It changes its MAC address to the MAC address of another node.

  • It announces to several nodes a shorter path to reach X.

  • X is now unreachable because of the loop formed.

Attacks using fabrication

Generates traffic to disturb the good operation of an ad-hoc network.

• Falsifying route error messages.

  • Isolate nodes.

• Corrupting routing state.

  • Hackers can easily broadcast a message with a spoofed IP address such that the other nodes add this new route to reach a special node S.

  • The malicious node will receive the packets intended for S.

• Routing table overflow attack.

  • Hackers can send in the network a lot of routes to non-existent nodes until overwhelm the protocol.

• Replay attack.

  • A hacker sends old advertisements to a node.

• Black hole attack.

  • Hacker advertises a zero metric route for all destinations.

  • All the nodes around it will route packets toward it.