Simulation of Attacks for Security in Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

The increasing complexity and low-power constraints of current Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require efficient methodologies for network simulation and embedded software performance analysis of nodes. In addition, security is also a very important feature that has to be addressed in most WSNs, since they may work with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments. In this paper, a methodology for security analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. The methodology allows designing attack-aware embedded software/firmware or attack countermeasures to provide security in WSNs. The proposed methodology includes attacker modeling and attack simulation with performance analysis (node’s software execution time and power consumption estimation). After an analysis of different WSN attack types, an attacker model is proposed. This model defines three different types of attackers that can emulate most WSN attacks. In addition, this paper presents a virtual platform that is able to model the node hardware, embedded software and basic wireless channel features. This virtual simulation analyzes the embedded software behavior and node power consumption while it takes into account the network deployment and topology. Additionally, this simulator integrates the previously mentioned attacker model. Thus, the impact of attacks on power consumption and software behavior/execution-time can be analyzed. This provides developers with essential information about the effects that one or multiple attacks could have on the network, helping them to develop more secure WSN systems. This WSN attack simulator is an essential element of the attack-aware embedded software development methodology that is also introduced in this work.

A Survey of Potential Security Issues in Existing Wireless Sensor Network Protocols

“…Therefore, fast and accurate simulations of WSNs in the presence of an adversary are of the great value in designing resilient, but also secure sensor networks. In [68], authors surveyed most popular network simulators. What is common for all of them is that they lack an unified security module.…”

Wireless Sensor Network Based Smart Grid Communications: Cyber Attacks, Intrusion Detection System and Topology Control

“…Moreover, keeping signatures of attacks to generate data base is a complicated task for WSN due to its limited memory and processing capabilities. However, in very few studies, this method has been explored using watchdog approach [83][84][85][86]. Watchdog approach uses the abnormal behavior of a node to detect an intrusion.…”

“…In this type of attack, a malicious or fake node registers all the information and diverts it to wrong path. This attack can be formed without the knowledge of cryptography of actual wireless sensor node [84][85][86].…”

“…To detect the above-mentioned anomalies, different types of approaches are applied [86]. These anomaly detection approaches can be classified as game theoretic, statistical, machine learning, artificial immune system and data mining based approach [85][86][87][88].…”

“…The strategies for attacks and detection system for WSNs are different from other wireless or wired networks due to their structure and limited battery life. Intrusion detection approaches for WSN are classified as follows [82][83][84][85][86].…”