Research Article
Stealthy Compromise of Wireless Sensor Nodes with Power Analysis Attacks
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-16644-0_21, author={Giacomo Meulenaer and Fran\`{e}ois-Xavier Standaert}, title={Stealthy Compromise of Wireless Sensor Nodes with Power Analysis Attacks}, proceedings={Mobile Lightweight Wireless Systems. Second International ICST Conference, MOBILIGHT 2010, Barcelona, Spain, May 10-12, 2010, Revised Selected Papers}, proceedings_a={MOBILIGHT}, year={2012}, month={10}, keywords={Wireless Sensor Networks Node Compromise Power Analysis Attacks}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-16644-0_21} }- Giacomo Meulenaer
François-Xavier Standaert
Year: 2012
Stealthy Compromise of Wireless Sensor Nodes with Power Analysis Attacks
MOBILIGHT
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-16644-0_21
Abstract
Node capture is considered as one of the most critical issues in the security of wireless sensor networks. A popular approach to thwart the problem relies on the detection of events that arise during the attack such as the removal of a node for instance. However, certain attacks, such as side-channel attacks, might be furtive and defeat this type of defense. This work clarifies this question by performing a case study of power analysis attacks on AES and ECC implementations on two common types of nodes: the MICAz and the TelosB. From our experiments, the attacks can be carried out in a stealthy manner. As a result, stealthy node compromises should be considered when securing wireless sensor networks. Also, the moderate complexity of our attacks underlines the importance of low-cost side-channel countermeasures for sensor nodes.