Skip to main content

Attacking Beacon-Enabled 802.15.4 Networks

  • Conference paper
Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2010)

Abstract

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard has attracted time-critical applications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) because of its beacon-enabled mode and guaranteed time slots (GTSs). However, the GTS management scheme’s built-in security mechanisms still leave the 802.15.4 MAC vulnerable to attacks. Further, the existing techniques in the literature for securing 802.15.4 either focus on non beacon-enabled mode 802.15.4 or cannot defend against insider attacks for beacon-enabled mode 802.15.4. In this paper we illustrate this by demonstrating attacks on the availability and integrity of a beacon-enabled 802.15.4 sensor network. To confirm the validity of the attacks, we implement the attacks using Tmote Sky Motes for sensor nodes, where the malicious node is deployed as an inside attacker. We show that the malicious node can easily exploit information retrieved from the beacon frames to compromise the integrity and availability of the network. We also discuss possible defense mechanisms against these attacks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Alert Me homepage, http://www.alertme.com/products/home-monitoring

  2. Mishra, A., Na, C., Rosenburgh, D.: On Scheduling Guaranteed Time Slots for Time Sensitive Transactions in IEEE 802.15.4 Networks. In: Military Communications Conference, MILCOM 2007, pp. 1–7. IEEE, Los Alamitos (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Koubaa, A., Alves, M., Tovar, E.: i-GAME: an implicit GTS allocation mechanism in IEEE 802.15.4 for time-sensitive wireless sensor networks. In: 18th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, vol. 10, pp. 183–192 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Koubaa, A., Alves, M., Tovar, E.: GTS allocation analysis in IEEE 802.15.4 for real-time wireless sensor networks. In: 20th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, IPDPS 2006, 8p. (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, F., Talanis, T., German, R., Dressler, F.: Real-time enabled IEEE 802.15.4 sensor networks in industrial automation. In: IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems, SIES 2009, pp. 136–139 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Park, P., Fischione, C., Johansson, K.H.: Performance Analysis of GTS Allocation in Beacon Enabled IEEE 802.15.4. In: 6th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks, SECON 2009, pp. 1–9 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Mehta, A., Bhatti, G., Sahinoglu, Z., Viswanathan, R., Zhang, J.: Performance analysis of beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 MAC for emergency response applications. In: 2009 IEEE 3rd International Symposium on Advanced Networks and Telecommunication Systems (ANTS), pp. 1–3 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Douceur, J.R.: The Sybil Attack. In: Druschel, P., Kaashoek, M.F., Rowstron, A. (eds.) IPTPS 2002. LNCS, vol. 2429, p. 251. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Yang, J., Chen, Y., Trappe, W.: Detecting sybil attacks in wireless and sensor networks using cluster analysis. In: 5th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems, MASS 2008, 29-October 2, pp. 834–839 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Demirbas, M., Song, Y.: An rssi-based scheme for sybil attack detection in wireless sensor networks. In: International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, WoWMoM 2006, p. 5, p. 570 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Amini, F., Misic, J., Pourreza, H.: Detection of sybil attack in beacon enabled IEEE 802.15.4 networks. In: International Conference on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, IWCMC 2008, pp. 1058–1063 (August 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang, Q., Wang, P., Reeves, D., Ning, P.: Defending against Sybil attacks in sensor networks. In: 25th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops, pp. 185–191 (June 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Du, W., Deng, J., Han, Y.S., Varshney, P.K.: A pairwise key predistribution scheme for wireless sensor networks. In: CCS 2003: Proceedings of the 10th ACM conference on Computer and communications security, pp. 42–51. ACM, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Liu, D., Ning, P.: Establishing pairwise keys in distributed sensor networks. In: CCS 2003: Proceedings of the 10th ACM conference on Computer and communications security, pp. 52–61. ACM, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Du, W., Deng, J., Han, Y., Chen, S., Varshney, P.: A key management scheme for wireless sensor networks using deployment knowledge. In: INFOCOM 2004. Twenty-third AnnualJoint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, vol. 1, p. 597 (March 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Eschenauer, L., Gligor, V.D.: A key-management scheme for distributed sensor networks. In: CCS 2002: Proceedings of the 9th ACM conference on Computer and communications security, pp. 41–47. ACM, New York (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Perrig, A., Szewczyk, R., Wen, V., Culler, D., Tygar, J.D.: SPINS: security protocols for sensor networks. In: MobiCom 2001: Proceedings of the 7th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, pp. 189–199. ACM, New York (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Karlof, C., Sastry, N., Wagner, D.: Tinysec: a link layer security architecture for wireless sensor networks. In: SenSys 2004: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 162–175. ACM, New York (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Luk, M., Mezzour, G., Perrig, A., Gligor, V.: MiniSec: a secure sensor network communication architecture. In: IPSN 2007: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Information processing in sensor networks, pp. 479–488. ACM, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wireless medium access control and physical layer specications for low-rate wireless personal area networks. IEEE Standard, 802.15.4-2003 (May 2003), ISBN 0-7381-3677-5

    Google Scholar 

  21. Sastry, N., Wagner, D.: Security considerations for ieee 802.15.4 networks. In: WiSe 2004: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM workshop on Wireless security, pp. 32–42. ACM, New York (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Alim, M.A., Sarikaya, B.: EAP-Sens: a security architecture for wireless sensor networks. In: WICON 2008: Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Wireless Internet, Brussels, Belgium, Belgium, pp. 1–9. ICST (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Aboba, L.B.B., Vollbrecht, J.C.J., Levkowetz, H.: Extensible Authentication Protocol EAP (June 2004), http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3748

  24. Clancy, T., Tschofenig, H.: Extensible Authentication Protocol Generalized Pre-Shared Key EAP-GPSK method (February 2009), http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5433

  25. Sokullu, R., Dagdeviren, O., Korkmaz, I.: On the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer attacks: GTS attack. In: Second International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications, SENSORCOMM 2008, pp. 673–678 (August 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Roosta, T., Shieh, S., Sastry, S.: Taxonomy of security attacks in sensor networks and countermeasures. In: The First IEEE International Conference on System Integration and Reliability Improvements, Hanoi, pp. 13–15 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Wood, A.D., Stankovic, J.A.: Denial of service in sensor networks. Computer 35, 54–62 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Moteiv Corporation, tmote-sky-datasheet (2006), http://www.moteiv.com

  29. Chipcon product from Texas Instruments, CC2420, http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc2420.pdf

  30. Karlof, C., Wagner, D.: Secure routing in wireless sensor networks: Attacks and Countermeasures. In: Proceedings of the First 2003 IEEE International Workshop on Sensor Network Protocols and Applications, pp. 113–127 (May 2003)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Open-zb homepage, http://www.open-zb.net/

  32. TinyOS homepage, http://www.tinyos.net/

  33. Chipcon Products from Texas Instruments, User Manual Rev. 1.0 CC2420DK Development Kit, http://focus.ti.com/lit/ug/swru045/swru045.pdf

  34. Texas Instruments Incorporated, SmartRFPacket Sniffer User Manual Rev. 1.9, http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/packetsniffer.html

  35. Wood, A.D., Stankovic, J.A.: A Taxonomy for Denial-of-Service Attacks. In: Wireless Sensor Networks. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2004)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Cite this paper

Jung, S.S., Valero, M., Bourgeois, A., Beyah, R. (2010). Attacking Beacon-Enabled 802.15.4 Networks. In: Jajodia, S., Zhou, J. (eds) Security and Privacy in Communication Networks. SecureComm 2010. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 50. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16161-2_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16161-2_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-16160-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-16161-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics