Research Article
Attacking Beacon-Enabled 802.15.4 Networks
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-16161-2_15, author={Sang Jung and Marco Valero and Anu Bourgeois and Raheem Beyah}, title={Attacking Beacon-Enabled 802.15.4 Networks}, proceedings={Security and Privacy in Communication Networks. 6th Iternational ICST Conference, SecureComm 2010, Singapore, September 7-9, 2010. Proceedings}, proceedings_a={SECURECOMM}, year={2012}, month={5}, keywords={Insider attacks Beacon-enabled 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks MAC misbehavior}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-16161-2_15} }- Sang Jung
Marco Valero
Anu Bourgeois
Raheem Beyah
Year: 2012
Attacking Beacon-Enabled 802.15.4 Networks
SECURECOMM
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-16161-2_15
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.