2,861 research outputs found
Security in heterogeneous wireless networks
The proliferation of a range of wireless devices, from the cheap low power resource starved sensor nodes to the ubiquitous cell phones and PDA\u27s has resulted in their use in many applications. Due to their inherent broadcast nature Security and Privacy in wireless networks is harder than the wired networks. Along with the traditional security requirements like confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation new requirements like privacy and anonymity are important in wireless networks. These factors combined with the fact that nodes in a wireless network may have different resource availabilities and trust levels makes security in wireless networks extremely challenging. The functional lifetime of sensor networks in general is longer than the operational lifetime of a single node, due to limited battery power. Therefore to keep the network working multiple deployments of sensor nodes are needed. In this thesis, we analyze the vulnerability of the existing key predistribution schemes arising out of the repeated use of fixed key information through multiple deployments. We also develop SCON, an approach for key management that provides a significant improvement in security using multiple key pools. SCON performs better in a heterogeneous environment. We present a key distribution scheme that allows mobile sensor nodes to connect with stationary nodes of several networks. We develop a key distribution scheme for a semi ad-hoc network of cell phones. This scheme ensures that cell phones are able to communicate securely with each other when the phones are unable to connect to the base station. It is different from the traditional ad hoc networks because the phones were part of a centralized network before the base station ceased to work. This allows efficient distribution of key material making the existing schemes for ad hoc networks ineffective. In this thesis we present a mechanism for implementing authenticated broadcasts which ensure non-repudiation using identity based cryptography. We also develop a reputation based mechanism for the distributed detection and revocation of malicious cell phones. Schemes which use the cell phone for secure spatial authentication have also been presented
Data-centric Misbehavior Detection in VANETs
Detecting misbehavior (such as transmissions of false information) in
vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is very important problem with wide range of
implications including safety related and congestion avoidance applications. We
discuss several limitations of existing misbehavior detection schemes (MDS)
designed for VANETs. Most MDS are concerned with detection of malicious nodes.
In most situations, vehicles would send wrong information because of selfish
reasons of their owners, e.g. for gaining access to a particular lane. Because
of this (\emph{rational behavior}), it is more important to detect false
information than to identify misbehaving nodes. We introduce the concept of
data-centric misbehavior detection and propose algorithms which detect false
alert messages and misbehaving nodes by observing their actions after sending
out the alert messages. With the data-centric MDS, each node can independently
decide whether an information received is correct or false. The decision is
based on the consistency of recent messages and new alert with reported and
estimated vehicle positions. No voting or majority decisions is needed, making
our MDS resilient to Sybil attacks. Instead of revoking all the secret
credentials of misbehaving nodes, as done in most schemes, we impose fines on
misbehaving nodes (administered by the certification authority), discouraging
them to act selfishly. This reduces the computation and communication costs
involved in revoking all the secret credentials of misbehaving nodes.Comment: 12 page
A robust self-organized public key management for mobile ad hoc networks
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self-organized wireless network where mobile nodes can communicate with each other without the use of any existing network infrastructure or centralized administration. Trust establishment and management are essential for any security framework of MANETs. However, traditional solutions to key management through accessing trusted authorities or centralized servers are infeasible for MANETs due to the absence of infrastructure, frequent mobility, and wireless link instability. In this paper, we propose a robust self-organized, public key management for MANETs. The proposed scheme relies on establishing a small number of trust relations between neighboring nodes during the network initialization phase. Experiences gained as a result of successful communications and node mobility through the network enhance the formation of a web of trust between mobile nodes. The proposed scheme allows each user to create its public key and the corresponding private key, to issue certificates to neighboring nodes, and to perform public key authentication through at least two independent certificate chains without relying on any centralized authority. A measure of the communications cost of the key distribution process has been proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is robust and efficient in the mobility environment of MANET and against malicious node attacks
Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey
This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh
network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user
privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various
possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for
WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the
security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application
layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols,
user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation
protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the
chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms
and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible
attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with
regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed,
use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved
etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management
approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly
becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open
problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed
before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the
author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are
some text overlaps with the previous submissio
A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in
the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed
nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks
are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their
proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed
for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield.
Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios.
Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security
mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible
in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging
task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms
for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures
presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN
security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
A Lightweight and Attack Resistant Authenticated Routing Protocol for Mobile Adhoc Networks
In mobile ad hoc networks, by attacking the corresponding routing protocol,
an attacker can easily disturb the operations of the network. For ad hoc
networks, till now many secured routing protocols have been proposed which
contains some disadvantages. Therefore security in ad hoc networks is a
controversial area till now. In this paper, we proposed a Lightweight and
Attack Resistant Authenticated Routing Protocol (LARARP) for mobile ad hoc
networks. For the route discovery attacks in MANET routing protocols, our
protocol gives an effective security. It supports the node to drop the invalid
packets earlier by detecting the malicious nodes quickly by verifying the
digital signatures of all the intermediate nodes. It punishes the misbehaving
nodes by decrementing a credit counter and rewards the well behaving nodes by
incrementing the credit counter. Thus it prevents uncompromised nodes from
attacking the routes with malicious or compromised nodes. It is also used to
prevent the denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The efficiency and effectiveness
of LARARP are verified through the detailed simulation studies.Comment: 14 Pages, IJWM
SECRET: a secure and efficient certificate revocation scheme for mobile ad hoc networks
The intent of this paper is to propose an enhanced certificate revocation scheme for Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). Our approach is built on mainly two previously proposed mechanisms. A combination of the schemes and optimization of certain steps with intelligent choices of parameters could significantly reduce the overhead associated with such mechanism. We prove the efficiency of our approach by performance analysis. Also, we present the security analysis that shows clear gains than the previously proposed schemes
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