Security in Ad Hoc Networks: From Vulnerability to Risk Management

Abstract

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) have lots of applications. Due to the features of open medium, absence of infrastructure, dynamic changing network topology, cooperative algorithms, lack of centralized monitoring and management point, resource constraints and lack of a clear line of defense, these networks are vulnerable to attacks. A vital problem that must be solved in order to realize these applications is that concerning the security aspects of such networks. Solving these problems combined with the widespread availability of devices such as PDAs, laptops, small fixtures on buildings and cellular phones will ensure that ad hoc networks will become an indispensable part of our life. In this paper, we discuss the reasons of vulnerability as well as active and passive attacks on such networks. We present the security measures used to secure ad hoc networks such as authentication, threshold cryptography, trust and reputation, and present a risk management scheme. Concluding remarks are presented at the end of this paper, while mentioning the different open research areas and challenges in the discussed security measures.

The Study on AD HOC Networks Security Solution

“…These appealing characteristics of Ad Hoc networks are the very ones which make them vulnerable to attacks. In [1] and [2], such reasons were summarized as follows:…”

“…Active attacks attempt to inject, replicate or delete exchanged packets; modify the content of packets and violate availability, integrity and authentication. Active attackers are denoted by Active n-m, where n is the number of nodes it has compromised and m is the number of nodes it owns [1] and [7]. In [1] and [2] various active attacks are presented, among the types of active attacks:…”

“…Active attackers are denoted by Active n-m, where n is the number of nodes it has compromised and m is the number of nodes it owns [1] and [7]. In [1] and [2] various active attacks are presented, among the types of active attacks:…”

“…Each approach addresses certain security issues and is suitable only for a sub-domain of the security problem. In the absence of a clear line of defense in Ad Hoc networks, an integrated and complete solution based on both approaches is to be used covering the three components of prevention, detection and reaction [1]. Prevention techniques deter the attacker by significantly increasing the difficulty of penetrating the system.…”

“…Since single CAs can die, a distributive key management solution with multiple CAs is usually deployed. [1] Three parameters are essential for this distributive system to work: fault tolerance, the number of node failures the system can handle, vulnerability, the number of compromised nodes the system can Advanced Materials and Computer Science withstand and availability, the ability of client to contact the required number of CA's. Optimizing fault tolerance by introducing a larger number of CAs adversely affects availability and vulnerability; it is not guaranteed that a single node has an access to all available redundant CAs, for if some CAs are down it might not be available to contact the other replicated CAs unless a complicated system is designed to accommodate so.…”