Resilient networking in wireless sensor networks

This report deals with security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), especially in network layer. Multiple secure routing protocols have been proposed in the literature. However, they often use the cryptography to secure routing functionalities. The cryptography alone is not enough to defend against multiple attacks due to the node compromise. Therefore, we need more algorithmic solutions. In this report, we focus on the behavior of routing protocols to determine which properties make them more resilient to attacks. Our aim is to find some answers to the following questions. Are there any existing protocols, not designed initially for security, but which already contain some inherently resilient properties against attacks under which some portion of the network nodes is compromised? If yes, which specific behaviors are making these protocols more resilient? We propose in this report an overview of security strategies for WSNs in general, including existing attacks and defensive measures. In this report we focus at the network layer in particular, and an analysis of the behavior of four particular routing protocols is provided to determine their inherent resiliency to insider attacks. The protocols considered are: Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Gradient-Based Routing (GBR), Greedy Forwarding (GF) and Random Walk Routing (RWR)

Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Issues and Challenges

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.Comment: 6 page

Common security issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks and IEEE 802.11 wireless mesh networks

Both Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) are multi-hop wireless networks. WMN is an emerging community based integrated broadband wireless network which ensures high bandwidth ubiquitous internet provision to users, while, WSN is application specific and ensures large scale real-time data processing in complex environment. Both these wireless networks have some common vulnerable features which may increase the chances of different sorts of security attacks. Wireless sensor nodes have computation, memory and power limitations, which do not allow for implementation of complex security mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the common limitations and vulnerable features of WMN and WSN, along with the associated security threats and possible countermeasures. We also propose security mechanisms keeping in view the architecture and limitations of both. This article will serve as a baseline guide for the new researchers who are concern with the security aspects of WMN and WSN

Routing Security Issues in Wireless Sensor Networks: Attacks and Defenses

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are rapidly emerging as an important new area in wireless and mobile computing research. Applications of WSNs are numerous and growing, and range from indoor deployment scenarios in the home and office to outdoor deployment scenarios in adversary's territory in a tactical battleground (Akyildiz et al., 2002). For military environment, dispersal of WSNs into an adversary's territory enables the detection and tracking of enemy soldiers and vehicles. For home/office environments, indoor sensor networks offer the ability to monitor the health of the elderly and to detect intruders via a wireless home security system. In each of these scenarios, lives and livelihoods may depend on the timeliness and correctness of the sensor data obtained from dispersed sensor nodes. As a result, such WSNs must be secured to prevent an intruder from obstructing the delivery of correct sensor data and from forging sensor data. To address the latter problem, end-to-end data integrity checksums and post-processing of senor data can be used to identify forged sensor data (Estrin et al., 1999; Hu et al., 2003a; Ye et al., 2004). The focus of this chapter is on routing security in WSNs. Most of the currently existing routing protocols for WSNs make an optimization on the limited capabilities of the nodes and the application-specific nature of the network, but do not any the security aspects of the protocols. Although these protocols have not been designed with security as a goal, it is extremely important to analyze their security properties. When the defender has the liabilities of insecure wireless communication, limited node capabilities, and possible insider threats, and the adversaries can use powerful laptops with high energy and long range communication to attack the network, designing a secure routing protocol for WSNs is obviously a non-trivial task.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables 4. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1011.152

Wireless Sensor Network Security Model for D2P Attacks Using Zero Knowledge Protocols

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are innovative large-scale wireless networks that consist of distributed, lowpower, small-size devices using sensors to cooperatively collect information through infrastructure less ad-hoc wireless network. These small devices used in wireless sensor nodes are called sensor nodes. They are envisioned to play an important role in a wide variety of areas ranging from critical military surveillance applications to forest fire monitoring and building security monitoring in the near future. In these networks, a large number of sensor nodes are deployed to monitor a vast field, where the operational conditions are most often harsh or even hostile. Since these networks are usually deployed in remote places and left unattended, they should be equipped with security mechanisms to defend against attacks such as node capture, physical tampering, eavesdropping, denial of service, etc. Unfortunately, traditional security mechanisms with high overhead are not feasible for resource constrained sensor nodes