Improved security in geographic ad hoc routing through autonomous position verification

Abstract

Inter-vehicle communication is regarded as one of the major applications of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Compared to other MANETs, these so called vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have special requirements in terms of node mobility and position-dependent applications, which are well met by geographic routing protocols. Functional research on geographic routing has already reached a considerable level, whereas security aspects have been vastly neglected so far. Since position dissemination is crucial for geographic routing, forged position information has severe impact regarding both performance and security.In order to lessen this problem, we propose a detection mechanism that is capable of recognizing nodes cheating about their position in beacons (periodic position dissemination in most single-path geographic routing protocols, e.g. GPSR). Unlike other proposals described in the literature, our detection does not rely on additional hardware or special nodes, which contradicts the ad hoc approach. Instead, this mechanism uses a number of different independent sensors to quickly give an estimation of the trustworthiness of other nodes' position claims without using dedicated infrastructure or specialized hardware.The simulative evaluation proves that our position verification system successfully discloses nodes disseminating false positions and thereby widely prevents attacks using position cheating.

Decentralized position verification in geographic ad hoc routing

“…In Reference [12], we have proposed a set of autonomous and cooperative mechanisms that enable position verification. The autonomous mechanisms have been studied in detail in Reference [13]. In this work, we provide a complete view on the problem and our proposed solution and we complement previous work with more details on cooperative sensors.…”

Security Attacks and Solutions in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey

“…Moreover, a strict registration may lead to serious privacy troubles. In position verification [26], the position of nodes will be verified. The goal is to make certain that each physical node refers to one and only one identity.…”

Providing VANET security through active position detection

“…Leinmüller et al [10] proposed a method to secure position information by using hard thresholds to detect false locations. Vehicles monitor data to verify the reported position.…”

“…Second, radar does not work and it cannot harm the system. In the scenario without radar, we can apply the method proposed by Leinmüller [10]. They detect radio signals and use a hard threshold to determine the compromised vehicles.…”

“…Since position information is very important, adversaries, such as pranksters and malicious attackers, could harm the VANET by perpetrating the following attacks [7,8,9,10,5,11,12]:…”