Journal of Information Security, 2011, 2, 69-84
doi:10.4236/jis.2011.22007 Published Online April 2011 (h t tp : // ww w .scirp.o rg/journal /j is)
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
A Comparison of Link Layer Attacks on
Wireless Sensor Networks
Shahriar Mohammadi1, Reza Ebrahimi Atani2, Hossein Jadidoleslamy3
1Department of Industrial Engineering, K. N. Tossi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
2Department of Computer Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
3Department of Information T echn ology, Anzali International Branch, The University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Email: smohammadi40@yahoo.com, rebrahimi@guilan.ac.ir, tanha.hossein@gmail.com
Received December 12, 2010; revised January 10, 2011; accepted February 26, 2011
Abstract
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have many potential applications [1,2] and unique challenges. They usu-
ally consist of hundreds or thousands of small sensor nodes such as MICA2, which operate autonomously;
conditions such as cost, invisible deployment and many application domains, lead to small size and resource
limited sensors [3]. WSNs are susceptible to many types of link layer attacks [1] and most of traditional
network security techniques are unusable on WSNs [3]; This is due to wireless and shared nature of commu-
nication channel, untrusted transmissions, deployment in open environments, unattended nature and limited
resources [1]. Therefore security is a vital requirement for these networks; but we have to design a proper
security mechanism that attends to WSN’s constraints and requirements. In this paper, we focus on security
of WSNs, divide it (the WSNs security) into four categories and will consider them, include: an overview of
WSNs, security in WSNs, the threat model on WSNs, a wide variety of WSNs’ link layer attacks and a
comparison of them. This work enables us to identify the purpose and capabilities of the attackers; further-
more, the goal and effects of the link layer attacks on WSNs are introduced. Also, this paper discusses
known approaches of security detection and defensive mechanisms against the link layer attacks; this would
enable IT security managers to manage the link layer attacks of WSNs more effectively.
Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network, Security, Link Layer, Attacks, Detection, Defensive Mechanism
1. Introduction
Advances in wireless communications have enabled the
development of low-cost and low-power WSNs [1].
WSNs have many potential applications [1,2] and unique
challenges. They usually are heterogeneous systems con-
tain many small devices, called sensor nodes, that moni-
toring different environments in cooperative; i.e. sensors
cooperate to each other and compose their local data to
reach a global view of the environment; sensor nodes also
can operate autonomously. In WSNs there are two other
components, called “aggregation points” and “base sta-
tions” [4], which have more powerful resources than nor-
mal sensors. As shown in Figure 1, aggregation points
collect information from their nearby sensors, integrate
them and then forward to the base stations to pro cess ga-
thered data. Limitations such as cost, invisible deploy-
ment and variety of application domains, lead to requir-
ing small size and resource limited (like energy, storage
and processing) sensors [3]. WSNs are vulnerable to
many types of attacks and due to unsafe and unprotected
nature of communication channel [5-7], untrusted and
broadcast transmission media, deployment in hostile en-
vironments [1,2], automated nature and limited resources,
most of security techniques of traditional networks are
impossible in WSNs; therefore, security is a vital and
complex requirement for these networks. It is necessary
to design an appropriate security mechanism for these
networks [2,8], which attending to be WSN’s constraints.
This security mechanism should cover different security
dimension of WSNs, include confidentiality, integrity,
availability and authenticity. The main purpose of this
paper is presenting an overview of different link layer
attacks on WSNs and comparing them together. In this
paper, we focus on secu rity of WSNs and classify it into
four categories, as follows:
An overview of WSNs,
Security in WSNs include security goals, security
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Figure 1. WSN’s architecture.
obstacles and security requirements of WSNs.
The threat model on WSNs,
A wide variety of WSN’s link layer attacks and
comparing them to each other, include classification
of WSN’s link layer attacks based on threat model
and compare them to each other based on their
goals, results, strategies, detection and defensive
mechanisms;
This work makes us enable to iden tify the purpose and
capabilities of the attack ers; al so, th e goal, fin al result an d
effects of the attacks on the WSNs. We also state some
available approaches of security detection and defensive
mechanisms against these attacks to handle them. The
rest of this paper is organized as follows: in Section 2 an
overview of WSNs is presented. Section 3 is mainly fo-
cused on the security issues in WSNs. Section 4 consid-
ers the threat model in WSNs. Section 5 includes defini-
tions, strategies and effects of link layer attacks on WSNs.
WSNs’ link layer attacks is considered in Section 6 and
finally conclusion are drawn in Section 7.
2. Overview of WSNs
In this section, we present an outline of different aspects
of WSNs, such as definition, characteristics, applications,
constraints and challenges.
2.1. Definition and Suppositions of WSNs
A WSN is a heterogeneous system consisting of hundreds
or thousands of low-cost and low-power tiny sensors to
monitor and gather real-time information from deploy-
ment environment [8-10]. Common functionality of
WSNs are broadcasting and multicasting, routing, for-
warding and route maintenance. The sensor’s components
are: sensor unit, processing unit, storage/memory unit,
power supply unit and wireless radio transceiver; these
units are communicating to each other, as shown in Fig-
ure 2. The existing components on WSN’s architecture
Figure 2. WSN’s node architecture.
include sensor nodes (motes or field devices that are sen-
sing data), network manager, security manager, aggrega-
tion points, base stations (access point or gateway) and
user/human interface. Besides, there are two approaches
in WSN’s communication models containing hierarchical
WSN versus distributed [8] and homogeneous WSN ver-
sus heterogeneous [8]. Some of the common suppositions
of these networks are:
Insecure radio links [6,10,11],
Packet injection and replay [6,10],
Non tamper resistant [11],
Many normal sensor nodes (high-density) and low
malicious nodes,
Powerful attackers (laptop-class) [11,12].
2.2. WSNs Characteristics and Weakness
Most important characteristics of WSNs are:
Constant or mobile sensors (mobility).
Resource limited sensors [5,13] (limited range radio
communication, energy, computational capabilities
[5]), low reliability, wireless communication [5] and
immunity.
Dynamic/unpredictable WSN’s topology and self-
organization [5,14].
Ad-hoc based networks [10,15] and hop-by-hop
communication (multi-hop routing) [14,16,17].
Non-central management, autonomously and infra-
structure-less [10].
Open/hostile-environment nature [10,11] and high
density.
2.3. WSN’s Applications
In general, there are two kinds of applications for WSNs:
monitoring and tracking [10]. Therefore, some of the
most common applications of these networks are: mili-
tary, medical, environmental monitoring [3,8,10], indus-
trial, infrastructure protection [3,10], disaster detection
and recovery, agriculture, intelligent buildings, law en-
forcement, transportation and space discovery (as shown
in Figure 3(a) and 3(b)).
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(a)
(b)
Figure 3. WSN’s applications.
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2.4. Vulnerabilities and Challenges of WSN
WSNs are vulnerable to many kinds of attacks; some of
the most important reasons are:
Theft (reengineering, compromising and replicat-
ing),
Limited capabilities [18,19] (DoS attacks risks,
constraint in using encryption),
Random deployment (hard preconfiguration) [18, 7].
Unattended nature [7,14,15,18].
In continue this section states most common challen-
ges and constraints in WSNs; include:
Deployment on open/dyn amic/hos tile environ ments
[7,12,15] (physical access, capture and node
des-truction);
Insider attacks;
Inapplicable/unusable traditional security tech-
ni-ques [3,7,19] (due to limited devices/resources,
deploying in open environments and interaction
with physical environm ent);
Ad-hoc based deployment [12,15] (dynamic struc-
ture and topology, self-organization);
Resource scarcity/hungry [5,7,20] (low and expen-
sive communication/computation/processing re-
sources);
Devices with limited capabilities [21,22], per-
vasi-veness (privacy worries), wireless (medium)
[5,7, 18] and mobility;
Unreliable communication [5,7] (connectionless
packet-based routing unreliable transfer, channel
broadcast nature conflicts, multi-hop routing an d
network congestion and node processing La-
tency);
Unattended operation [6,12] (Exposure of physical
attacks, managed remotely, no central management
point);
Increased attacks’ risks and vulnerab ilities [7], new
attacks, increased tiny/embedded devices, multi-
hopping ro u ting (selfish) [ 1 4 ];
Immense/large scale (high density, scalable secu-
rity mechanism requirement);
Redesigning security architectures (distributed and
self-organized);
3. Security in WSNs
Now, intrusion techniques in WSNs are increasing; also
there are many methods to disrupt these networks. In
WSNs, data accuracy and network health are necessary;
because these networks usually use on confidential and
sensitive environments. There are three security key po-
ints on WSNs, including system (integrity, availability),
source (authentication, authorization) and data (integrity,
confidentiality). Necessities of security in WSNs are:
Correctness of network functionality;
Unusable typical networks protocols [3,15];
Limited resources [5,7,23];
Untruste d no des [5,12,15] ;
Requiring trusted center for key management [15],
to authenticate nodes to each other [24], preventing
from existing attacks and selfishness [23,25] and
extending collab oration;
3.1. Why Security in WSNs?
Security in WSNs is an important, critical issue, ne-
cessa-ry and vital requirement, due to:
WSNs are vulnerable against security attacks [7, 26]
(broadcast and wireless nature of transmission me-
dium);
Nodes deploy on hostile environments [7,12,15]
(unsafe physic a l l y );
Unattende d nature of WSNs [6,12];
3.2. Security Issues
This section states the most important discussions on
WSNs; it is including key establishment, secrecy, auth-
entication, privacy, robustness to DoS attacks, secure
routing and node capture [18,15].
3.3. Security Services
There are many security services on WSNs; but some of
their common are including encryption and data link lay-
er authentication [12,15,20 ,23], multi-path ro uting [15,14,
23,24], identity verification, bidirectional link verifica-
tion [14,15,24] and authenticated broadcasts. As Figure
4 shows, the most important dimensions of security in
WSNs are including security goals, obstacles, constraints,
security threats, security mechanisms and security classes;
however, this paper considers only star spangled parts/
blocks to classify and compare WSNs’ link layer attacks
based on them; i.e. security threats (including availability,
authenticity, integrity and confidentiality) and security
classes (containing interruption, interception, modifica-
tion and fabrication); as shown in Table 1.
4. Threat Model in WSNs
There are many classes of WSNs’ attacks based on nature
and goals of attacks or attackers; but, in this section we
present and compare their most important classes (called
threat model of WSNs).
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Figure 4. Security in WSNs.
Table 1. WSNs link layer attacks classification based on WSNs threat model.
Threat model3
Attacks/features Security class1 Attack threat2 Attacker
location
Attacking
device
Attacks on
WSNs protocols
Node outage Modification Availability, integrity External Both Active
Link layer jamming Modification Availability, integrity External Both Active
Collision Modification Availability, integrity External Both Active
Resource Exhaustion Modification Availability, integrity External Both Active
Traffic manipulation Modification Availability, integrity External Both Active
Unfairness Modification Availability, integrity External Both Active
Acknowledge
spoofing Fabrication, modification Integrity, authenticity Both Both Active
Sinkhole Modification, fabrication Availability, integrity, authen-
ticity Both Both Active
Eavesdropping Interception Confidentiality External Both Passive
Impersonation Interception, fabrication,
modification,
Availability, integrity, confi-
dentiality, authenticity External Both Active
Wormholes Fabrication, interception Confidentiality, authenticity External Both Active
Desynchronization Modification, fabrication Availability, authenticity External Both Active
Denial of Service
(DoS) attacks
Interruption, interception,
modification, fabrication
Availability, integrity, confi-
dentiality, authenticity Both Both Active
1Security class: the nature of attacks; include interruption, interception, modification and fabrication;
2Attack threat: security service attacked; threaten/affected security dimension; include confidentiality, integrity, authenticity and availability;
3Threat model: based on attacker location or access level (internal/insider or external/outsider), based on attacking devices (mote-class or laptop-class
and based on damage/attacks on WSN protocols include active attacks (availability (packet drop or resource consumption), integrity (information
modification) and authenticity (fabrication)), passive attacks (confidentiality (i nterception));
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4.1. Attacks based on Damage/Access Level
In this subsection is presented the classifications of
WSNs’ link layer attacks based on their damage level or
attacker's access level, including:
4.1.1. Active Atta cker
This kind of attacker does operations, such as:
Injecting faulty data into the WSN;
Impersonating [3,10];
Packet modification [15];
Unauthorized access, monitor, eavesdrop and mod-
ify resources and data stream;
Creating hole in security protocols [12];
Overloading the WSN;
Some of the goals and effects of these attacks are:
The WSN functio nality disruption;
The WSN performance degradation;
Sensor nodes destruction;
Data alteration;
Inability in use the WSN’s services;
Obstructing the operations or to cut off certain no-
des from their neighbors;
4.1.2. Pass i ve At t acker
Passive attacker may do the following functions;
Attacker is similar to a normal node and gathers in-
formation from the WSN;
Monitori ng and eavesdroppi ng [3, 12] f rom comm u-
nication channel by unauthorized attackers;
Naturally against privacy;
The goals and effects of this kind of attacker include:
Eavesdropping, gathering and stealing information;
Compromised privacy and confidentiality require-
ments;
Storing energy by selfish node and to avoid from
cooperation;
The WSN functio nality degradation;
Network partition by non-cooperate in operations;
4.2. Attacks based on Attacker Location
Attacker can be deployed inside or outside the WSN; if
the attacker be into the WSN’s range, called insider (in-
ternal), and if the attacker is deployed out of the WSN’s
range, called outsider (external). This subsection presen-
ted and classified the WSNs’ link layer attacks based on
attackers’ location, including:
4.2.1. External Attacker (Outsider)
Some of the most common features of this type of at-
tacks are:
External to the network [3,15] (from out of the
WSN range);
Device: Mote/Laptop class;
Committed by illegally parties [3,9];
Initiating attacks without even being authenticated;
Some of the common effects of these attacks are:
Jamming the entire communication of the WSN;
WSN’s resources consumption;
Triggering DoS attacks;
4.2.2. Internal Attacker (Insider)
The meaning of insider attacker is:
Main challenge in WSNs;
Sourced from inside of the WSN and access to all
other nodes within its range [2,3,9];
Authorized node in the WSN is malicious/compro-
mised;
Executing malicious data or use of cryptography
contents of the legitimate nodes [12,15];
Legitimate entity (authenticated) compromising a
number of WSN’s nodes;
Some of most important goals of these attacks type
are:
Access to cryptography keys or other WSN codes;
Revealing secret keys;
A high threat to the functional efficiency of the
whole collective;
Partial/total degradation/disruption;
4.3. Attacks based on Attacking Devices
Attackers can use different types of devices to attack to
the WSNs; these devices have different power, radio an-
tenna and other capabilities. There are two common cat-
egories of them, including:
4.3.1. Mote-class Attacker
Mote-class attacker is every one that using devices simi-
lar to common sensor nodes; this means,
Occurring from inside the WSN;
Using WSN’s nodes (compromised sensor nodes)
or access to similar nodes/motes (which have simi-
lar functionality as the WSN’s nodes) [9,10];
Executing malicious codes/programs;
Mote-class attacker has many goals, such as:
Jamming radio link;
Stealing and access to cryptography keys;
4.3.2. Laptop-class Attacker
Laptop-class attacker is every one that using more pow-
erful devices than common sensor nodes, including:
Main challenge in WSNs;
Using more powerful devices by attacker, thus ac-
cess to high bandwidth and low-latency communi-
cation channel;
Traffic injection [3];
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Passive eavesdrop [15] on the entire WSN by a
single laptop-class device;
Replacing legitimate nodes;
Laptop-class attackers have many effects on WSNs,
for example:
Launching more serious attacks and then lead to
more serious damage;
Jamming radio links on the WSN entirely (by using
more powerful transmitter);
Access to high bandwidth and low-latency commu-
nication channel;
4.4. Attacks based on Function (Operation)
Link layer attacks in WSNs have been classified into
three types, based on th eir main functionality; this subse-
ction presented them, include:
4.4.1. Secrecy
Its definition and techni q ues are:
Operating stealthy on the communication channel;
Eavesdropping [5,12];
Packet replay, spoofing or modification;
Injecting false data into the WSN [2,8];
Cryptography standard techniques can prevent from
these attacks;
Goals and effects of this kind of attacks are:
Passive eavesdrop;
Packet replication, spoofing or modification;
4.4.2. Availability
This class of attacks known as Denial of Services (DoS)
attacks; which leads to WSNs’ unav ailability, degrad e the
WSNs’ performance or broken it. Some of the most com-
mon goals and effects of this attacks’ category are inclu-
ding:
Performance degradation;
The WSN’s services destruction/disruption;
The WSN useless/unavailable;
4.4.3. Stealth y
This kind of attacks is operating stealthy on the commu-
nication channel; such as:
Eavesdropping [3,10,12];
False data injection into the WSN;
The most important effects of these attacks are includ-
ing:
Partial/entire degradation/disruption the WSN’s
services and functionality;
As shown in Table 2, damage level of link layer at-
tacks on WSNs can be high (serious effect on the WSN)
or low (limited effect on the WSN); besides, the attack-
ers identification can be easy (possible), medium or hard
(impossible), depending on that kind of attack; also the
attackers’ presence or attacks’ effects can be explicit (se-
rious damage) or implicit (for example, eavesdropping).
5. Definitions, Strategies and Effects of Link
Layer Attacks on WSNs
WSNs are designed in layered form; this layered archi-
tecture makes these networks susceptible and lead to
da-mage against many kinds of attacks. For each layer,
there are some attacks and defensive mechanisms. Thus,
WSNs are vulnerable against different link layer attacks,
such as DoS attacks, Collision, unfairness and other at-
tacks to link layer protocols [3,15]; WSNs are suscepti-
ble to link layer attacks. Attackers can gain access to
transmission media, create radio interference, prevent
from legitimate sensor nodes to communicate/transmit
(access to the com-munication channel) or launch DoS
attacks against link layer. Now, in Table 3 is presented
the definitions of link layer attacks on WSNs, and then it
classified and compared them to each others based on
their strategies and effects.
6. Comparison Link Layer Attacks on WSNs
WSNs are vulnerable against link layer attacks. There-
fore, we have to use some techniques to protect data ac-
curacy, network functionality and its availability. As a
result, we require establishing security in WSNs with at-
tention to requirement s and limitations of th ese n e two r k s.
Table 2. Threat model of WSNs.
Attack
category/
features Types Damage
level4 Ease of
identify5 Attacker
presence6
Active
attacker High Easy Explicit
Based on
damage
level Passive
attacker Low Hard Implicit
External
(outsider) Low Medium Implicit
Based on
attacker
location Internal
(insider) High Hard Implicit
Mote-class
attacker Low Hard Implicit
Based on
attacking
devices Laptop-class
attacker High Easy Explicit
Secrecy High Hard Implicit
Availability High Hard Both
Based on
attack
function Stealthy High Hard Implicit
4Damage level: high (seriou s or more damage than other type) and low
(limitary);
5Ease of identify attackers: easy (possible), medium (depending on at-
tack type) and hard (impossible or not as easy to prevent as other ones);
6Attacker presence or attack's effect: explicit (more powerful attacker,
then more serious damage/harm) and implicit;
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Table 3. Link layer attacks on WSNs (classification and comparison based on strategies and effects).
Attack/criteria Attack definition Attack techniques Attack effects
Node outage
S t o p p i n g t h e f u n c t ionality of WSNs
components, such as a sensor node
or a cluster-leader;
Physically ;
Logical;
Stop nodes services;
Take over/compromise the partial/entire the
WSN and prevent from some communica-
tion;
I mpossibility reading gathered information;
Launching other attacks;
Link layer
jamming Fi nding da ta packet and to jam it[1];
Looking at the probability distri-
bution of the inter-arrival times
between all types of packets;
This attack can be applied on
S-MAC, B-MAC and L-MAC
protocols [1];
C o ll i d in g pa c k et s during transmi ss i on;
Exhausting nodes resources;
Confusion;
Collision
Message transmission by two nodes
on a same frequency [1,5], simulta-
neously;
There are 2 types collision: envi-
ronmental and probabilistic colli-
sion;
E nvironmental collision;
Probabilistic collision;
V erifying and isolate radio
transmissions;
C hange packets fields;
Alter the ack message;
Interferences [1];
D a ta / c on t rol packets corruption/cripple [1];
Discarding packets;
Energy exhaustion;
Cost effective;
Resource
Exhaustion
Repeated collisions and continuous
retransmission until the s ensor node
death [1];
Continuously retransmission;
Interrogation attack (RTS/CTS);
Message modification;
A ck co rruption/change;
R es ou rces exhaustion;
Compromise availability;
Traffic
manipulation
Regular monitoring transmissions
and computing some parameters
based on affected MAC protocol
carefully time adjustment
transmitting m essages just at the
moment when normal nodes do so;
Similar to Collision attack;
R eg ul ar monitoring the commu-
nication channel and computing
require parameters;
Misusing from the wireless nature
of communications in WSNs;
D iso beying the coordination rules
of MAC schemes in use;
Collision attack techniques;
U n fa i rness attack techniques;
Continuously collisions and un-
fairness;
Excessive packet collisions ;
Artificially increased contention;
D e creasing signal quality and network
availability;
Aggressively competition for cha nnel us-
age;
B reak the protocols oper ations;
U nf a ir bandwidth usage;
D egradation of the WSN performanc e;
Traffic distortion;
Effects of collision and unfairness attacks;
Confusion;
Unfairness
Partial DoS attack;
Using other attacks such as collision
and exhaustion continuously;
I ntermittent application of colli-
sion and exhaustion attack s;
Misusing/abusing a cooper ative
MAC-layer priority mechanism;
Continuously request to access to
channel by attacker;
Decrease utility and efficiency of services;
Nodes hungry to channel access;
Limiting access to channel and undermine
communication channel capacity;
Acknowledge
spoofing
An adve rsary can spoof link layer
acknowledgements (ACKs) of
overheard packets [11];
ACKs replication;
F o rging/spoofing link layer
ACKs of neighbor nodes;
False view/information of the WSN;
Launch selective forwarding att ack ;
Packet loss/corruption;
Sinkhole
A special selective forwarding at-
tack;
More complex than blackhole a t -
tack;
At tracting [5,6] or draw the all pos-
sible network traffic to a compro-
mised node by placing a malicious
node closer to the base station [17]
and enabling selective forwarding;
Centralizing traffic into the mali-
cious node [13];
P o ssible designing anoth er attack
during this attack;
S inkhole detection is very hard;
Luring [3] or c ompromising
nodes [11];
Tamper with application data
along the packet flow path (selec-
tive forwarding);
Receiving traffic and altering o r
fabricating information [17];
Identity spoofing for a short time;
U s ing the communication pattern;
Creating a large sphere of influ-
ence;
Based on used routing protocol:
MintRoute or MultiHopLQI pro-
tocol;
Luring and to attract almost all the traffic;
Triggering other attacks, such as eaves-
dropping, trivial selectiv e fo rwarding,
blackhole and wormhol e ;
U surp the base station’s position;
Message modification;
Informa tion fabrication and packet drop-
ping;
Su p pressed messages in a certain area;
R ou ti ng i nform at io n modification/fake;
R es o urce exhaustion;
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Eavesdroping7
D et e ct in g t he co nt e nt s o f communi-
cation by overhearing/stealthy at-
tempt to data;
Interception;
A busi ng of wireless nature of
WSNs’ transmission medium;
U sing pow erful resources and
strong devices, such as powerful
receivers and well designed an-
tennas;
Launching other attacks (wormhole, black-
hole);
E x tracting sensitive WSN information;
D el et e th e privacy protec ti on a nd reducing
data confidentiality;
Impersonaion8
Malicious node impersonates a
cluster leader and lures nodes to a
wrong position;
I mpersonating a node within the
path of the data flow of atta ck e r’s
interest by modifying routing data or
imply ing itself as a trustworthy
communication partner to neighbor-
ing nodes in parallel;
The WSN reconfiguration;
Access to encryption keys and
authentication information;
Man-in-the-middle att ac k a nd
fake MAC addresses;
N ode replication [26];
Physical access to the WSN;
F a l s e o r malicious node attack
techniques;
Sybil attacks techniques;
Misdirection/misrouting;
Modifying routing inform a t io n ;
Luring/convince nodes;
Routing information modification;
F a lse sensor readings;
Making network congestion or collapse;
Disclose secret keys;
Network partition;
F als e a nd misleading messages ge n e r a t e d ;
R es ou rces exhaustion;
Degrade the WSN performance;
Invasion;
Carrying out further attacks to disrupt op-
eration of the WSN;
C on fusion and taken over the e nt ire WSN;
Wormholes
Tunneling [5,11] and replicating
messages from one location to an-
other through alternative low-latency
links [1,3], that connect two or more
points (nodes) of the WSN with fast
communication medium [14] ( su ch
as Ethernet cable, wireless commu-
nication or optical fiber), by collud-
ing two active nodes (laptop-cla ss
attackers [3]) in the WSN, by using
more powerful communication re-
sources than normal nodes [4,21]
and establishing better real commu-
nication channels (tunnel);
Wormhole nodes operate full y in-
visible [21];
C ompromising/luring nodes [3]
with false and forged routing in-
formation;
An attacker locates between two
nodes and forwards messages
between them;
U s i ng o u t -of-band or
high-bandwidth f ast [14] channel;
Wormholes may be used along
with Sybil attack;
This attack may combines with
selective forwarding or eaves-
dropping;
R ou t in g d is ruption/disorder (false routes,
misdirection and forged routing);
F a ls e / fo r g ed r ou t i ng i nf o r mation;
Co nfusion and WSN disruption;
Enable other attacks;
E x pl o i ti n g t h e r o u ting race conditions;
C hang e th e n etwo rk topology;
P revention of path detection protocol;
P ac k et d e st ruction/alteration by wormhol e
nodes;
Changi ng norma l messages stream;
De-synchroniz
ation
D i srupting the established connec-
tions between two legitimate nodes
by re-synchronizing thei r transmis-
sion6;
Se nding repeatedly forged or
false messages;
R e-synchronizing transmissions;
D is rupt communication;
G o ou t th e s ynchronization;
R es o urce exhaustion;
Denial of
Serice (DoS)
attacks
A general attack includes seve ral
types other attacks in differ ent layers
of WSN, simultaneously [27];
Reducing WSN s availability [15,27]
Physical layer, link layer, routing
layer, transport layer a nd ap plica -
tion layer attacks techniques;
Effects of physical layer, link layer, routing
layer, transport layer and application layer
attacks;
6.1. Link Layer Attacks Classification based on
Threat Model of WSNs
In this subsection, we have tried to compare the link
layer attacks of WSNs based on attacks’ nature and ef-
fects, attackers’ nature and capabilities, and WSN’s
threat model; as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 shows the most important known attacks on
WSNs; this table has three columns, including security
class, attack threa t a nd WSNs’ t h re at model. Our pu r po se
of security class is the nature of attacks, includes inter-
ruption, interception, modification and fabrication. At-
tack threat shows which security service attacked or se-
curity dimension affected, includ es confid entiality, integ -
rity, authenticity and availability. The threat model of
WSNs has three sub-columns, that they are presenting
attackers’ features and capabilities, including based on
attacker location (internal/insider or external/outsider),
based on attacking devices (mote-class or laptop-class)
and based on attacks on WSN’s protocols, include active
attacks and passive attacks; active attacks are targeting
7Also called passive information gathering attack; a threat for data
confidentiality; the most common attack against privacy; an adversary
with powerful resources (powerful receiver and well designed antenna)
can gather the data stream from the WSN, if they are not encrypted;
8Also called identity spoofing or node replication [26] or multiple
identity attacks; identity spoofing and play the role of other one [26];
the attacker assumes the identity of another node in the network, thus
receiving messages directed to t he node it fakes;
9In link layer: using different neighbors to time synchronization; In
transport layer: an established connection between two end points can
b
e disrupted
b
y de-synchronizat i on ;
S. MOHAMMADI ET AL.
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
78
availability (packet drop or resource consumption), in-
tegrity (information modification) and authenticity (fab-
rication); passive attacks are aiming confidentiality (in-
terception).
According to Table 1, Figure 5 shows the percentages
of security classes’ different parameters associated to the
nature of WSNs’ link layer attacks; it compares these at-
tacks based on their nature by presents the percentage of
WSNs’ link layer attacks which based on interruption,
interception, modification or/and fabrication; so, it repre-
sents the importance of the security classes’ parameters.
As a result, the nature of the most of these attacks is mo-
dification (almost 85 percent of them) and interruption-
based attacks have lowest effect/impor tance on this layer
(7.6 percent).
The diagram of Figure 6 shows a comparison of
WSNs’ link layer attacks based on their security threats
factors including confidentiality, integrity, authenticity
and availability, in percentage; for example, it presents
almost 31 percent of security threat of WSNs’ link layer
attacks is confidentiality and the nature of 38.4 percent
of them is fabrication (fabricating data or identity). As
shown in Figure 6, the aim of the most WSNs’ link layer
attacks is attacking integ rity and availability.
Figure 7 shows a comparison link layer attacks based
on the threat model of WSNs; As shown Figure 7, the
occurred percentage of WSNs’ link layer attacks, in at-
tacker location, are 23 percent internal and 100 percent
external; i.e. most of WSNs’ link layer attacks are occur-
ring from out of WSNs’ range and attackers can trigger
them by mote-class or laptop-class devices. Also, it pre-
sents most of link layer attacks on WSNs are active, ex-
cept eavesdropping; i.e. almost 92 percent of WSNs’ link
layer attacks are active. Besides, Figure 7 shows least
attacks on link layer of WSNs are internal attacks.
6.2. Link Layer Attacks Comparison based on
Their Goals and Results
In link layer, attacker can disrupt the WSN’s functional-
ity by tampering with link layer services such as modify-
ing MAC (Media Access Control) protocol, interference
in communication channel and replicating/altering data
frames. As shown in Table 4, it categorizes the link layer
attacks of WSNs, based on their goals, effects and results.
Also Table 4 compares WSNs’ link layer attacks based
on attack or attacker purpose (including passive eaves-
drop, disrupt communication, unfairness, authorization
and authentication), requirements technical capabilities
(such as radio, battery, powerful receiver/antenna and
other high-tech and strong attacking devices), vulnerabili-
ties, main target and final result of attacks. Besides, the
contributors of all following link layer attacks (shown in
Table 4) are one or many compromised motes, pc or
laptop devices on WSNs. The vulnerabilities of these
attacks can be physical (hardware), logical or their both;
Attacks’ main target may be physical (hardware), logical
Figure 5. Comparison link layer attacks based on their na-
ture.
Figure 6. Comparison link layer attacks based on affected/
threaten security dime nsion.
Figure 7. Comparison link layer attacks based on WSNs
threat model.
S. MOHAMMADI ET AL.
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
79
(lis: logical-internal services or lps: logical-provided
services) or their both. Final result of these attacks is
including passive damage, partial degradation of the
WSN functionality and total broken of the WSN’s ser-
vices or functionality.
Figure 8 shows that how much percentage of WSNs’
link layer attacks are happened by targeting the fairness,
confidentiality, authentication, authorization and disrupt
communication on WSNs’ functionalities, services and
resources; for example, almost 85 percent of these atta-
cks are aiming the fairness of WSNs, and then they lead
to unfairness.
Figure 9 is presenting the percentage of every one of
kinds of link layer attacks vulnerabilities and their main
target on WSNs, including: 15.4 percent of them are at-
tacking the WSNs’ hardware, 61.5 percent of them are
aiming the WSNs’ logical-internal services (lis) and 92.3
percent are targeting the logical-provided services (lps)
by WSNs. Thus, most link layer attacks on WSNs have
logical vulnerabilities and only almost 15.4 percent of
them have physical harm/effects.
6.3. Detection and Defensive Strategies of WSNs
Link Layer Attacks
In Table 5 a classification and comparison of detec-
tion and defensive techniques on WSNs’ link layer atta-
cks is presented.
Table 4. Link layer attacks comparison based on attacks goals and their results.
Attacks/
features Purpose10 Technical capability Vulnerability11 Main target12 Final result13
Node outage Unfairness - Logical lis; lps PTDB14
Link layer jam-
ming [1] Disrupt communication Radio Logical lps PTDB
Collision [1] Unfairness - Logical lis; lps PTDB
Resource Exhaus-
tion [1] Unfairness - Logical lis; lps PTDB
Traffic manipula-
tion Unfairness - Logical lis; lps PTDB
Unfairness Unfairness - Logical lis; lps PTDB
Acknowledge
spoofing Unfairness - Logical lps PTDB
Sinkhole [1] Unfairness - Logical lps PTDB
Eavesdropping Passive eavesdr op of
data powerful resources and
strong devices15 Logical lps
Passive damage;
partial degradation
Impersonation All purpose Time and high-tech
equipments Logical; physi-
cal Physical; Logical
(lis and lps) Passive damage;
PTDB
Wormholes [1] Unfairness;
to be authenticated; to
be authorized - Logical lps
Passive eavesdrop;
PTDB
De-synchronization Disrupt communication;
unfairness - Logical lis PTDB
Denial of Service
(DoS) attacks All purpose Radio; battery; time and
high-tech equipments Logical; physi-
cal Physical; Logical
(lis and lps) Passive damage;
PTDB
10Purpose: passive eavesdrop, disrupt communication, unfairness, to be authorized, to be authenticated;
11Vulnerabilities: physical (hardware), logical;
12Main target: physical (har d w are), logical (lis: logical-internal servic e s o r lps: logical-provided services);
13Final result: passive damage, partial degradation of the WSN duty/functionality, service broken/disruption for the entire WSN (partial or total/entire
degradation/broken/disru p tion of the services/resources/functionality of the WSN);
14PTDB: Partial/Total Degradation/Broken;
15such as powerful receiver and well designed antenna;
S. MOHAMMADI ET AL.
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
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Figure 8. Comparison link layer attacks based on attacks’
purpose.
Figure 9. Comparison link layer attacks based on their
main target.
Table 5. Link layer attacks on WSNs (classification based on detection and defensive mechanisms).
Attack/criteria Detection methods Defensive mechanis ms
Node outage
N ode disc onn ecti on from the network;
Re gular monitoring and nodes’ cooperaion;
Existence interference in common operation of node;
N o d e d e s truction (physically);
P roviding an alternative pa t h;
D ev e lo pi n g ap p ropriate and robust protocols;
Defensive mechanisms against physical and node cap ture at-
tacks16;
Link layer
jamming
Misbehavior detection techniques17;
False identity detection techniques;
Limiting the rate of MAC requests;
Use of small frames;
S-MAC defensive method [1]18, L-MAC defensive m ethod [1]19
and B-MAC defensive method [1]20;
Identity protection21;
Link layer encryption;
Collision Misbehavior detection techniques;
All countermeasures of jamming attack;
Error correction codes (such as CRC codes) [1];
Time diversity;
Resource
Exhaustion Misbehavior detection techniques;
Limiting the MAC admission control rate [1];
Ran dom back-offs;
U s ing Time-Division multiplex ing;
l imiting the extraneous res po n se s;
P rotection of WSN ID and other information;
Traffic
manipulation Misbehavior detection techniques;
Traffic analysis attack defenses;
Collision attack defenses;
U n f a i rness attack defenses;
Misbehavior detection techniques;
Identity protection;
Link layer encryption;
Limiting the rate of MAC requests;
Use of small frames;
Unfairness Misbehavior dete ct ion te ch niq ues ; Use of small frames [1,3,5];
Acknowledge
spoofing Misbehavior detection tec hni que s;
U si ng a no the r route;
A uth ent ic ati on, link layer encryption and glo bal s hared key
techniques;
16Using tamper-proofing/tamper-resistant sensor packages; using special alerting hardware/software to the user; camouflaging/hiding sensors;
17Include adjustment back-off values, watchdogs/IDS on every node, iterative probing mechanisms, game theory, misbehavior-resilient back-of
f
algorithm, and rating nodes based on replication r ate or node's cooperation in c ommunication;
18Preventing clustering based analysis by narrowing the distance between the two clusters;
19Making the estimation of the clusters more difficult by changing the slot sizes (used for pack et t ransmission) pseudo-randomly as a function of t ime;
20Shortening the preamble in order to make its dete c ti o n h a rder;
21Using cryptography-based authentication or false identity detection techniques such as Radio resource test (Sybil attack), position verification (de-
tecting immobile attackers), code attestation (differing executing code on malicious or compromised node rather than normal nodes detecting at-
tackers by validating executing code on nodes), sequence checking and identity association (associating node identity with used keys on communica-
tion by that node);
S. MOHAMMADI ET AL.
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
81
Sinkhole
Fa lse routing inform ation detecti on [4,13];
Co opera ting neighboring nodes to each other [13];
Tree structure and verify by tree [13 ];
Verify by Visual Geographical Map;
De tection on MintRoute [3];
G eographical routing protocols;
Learning global map (if nodes ar e s tati c a nd at k now n lo cat ion );
Scalability;
Probabilistic next hop selection;
l ev eraging global knowledge;
V er if yi ng an d to t ru st i nf or mation tha t advertised of neighbor
nodes;
A uth ent ic ati on, link layer encryption and glo bal s hared key
techniques;
Routing access restriction (R) [4];
Wormhole detection (W) [4];
Key management (K);
Secure routing (S) [2];
Eavesdropping
Eavesdropping is a passive behavior, thus it is rarely
detectable;
Misbehavior detection techniques;
Access control;
Reduction in sensed data details;
D is t ributed processing;
Access restriction;
S trong encryption techniques;
Impersonation
False identity detection tec hniques (misbehavior
detection techniques);
F als e routing information detection;
Collision detection techniques;
Strong and proper authentication techniques;
U si ng s trong data encryption;
Se cure routing protocols;
Central certificate authority;
Pair-wise authentication;
Network layer authentication;
A do pt v al ida ti on techniques;
Identity protection;
Link layer encryption;
Limiting the rate of MAC requests;
Use of small frames for each packet;
Wormholes
F als e routing information detection;
Wormhole detec t i o n [21];
Combinational methods [21]22;
P acke t le ash es t ech niqu es [14, 28];
Packet leach/leashes techni ques [1,14,28]23;
MAD protocol and OLSR protocol [1,14];
D i rectional antennas [1,25] ;
Multi-dimensional scaling algorithm (scalability) [1];
Using local neighborhood information [1];
DA WWSEN protocol [3]24;
D e s i g n i n g p roper routing protocol s (clustering-based and geo-
graphical routing protocols );
l ev eraging global knowledge;
V erifying information that announce of neighbor nodes;
G raphical Position System [25,28];
Ul trasound [25];
G lob al cl ock synchronization;
C ombinational methods (such as radio waves and ultraound);
A uth ent ic ati on, link layer encryption and glo bal s hared key
techniques;
(R), (W), (K), (S) [2,4];
De-synchroniz-
tion Strong and un-forgeable authentication mechan isms;
S t rong authentication mecha n i sms;
Time synchronization, cooper atively;
Maintaining proper timing;
Denial of Ser-
vice (DoS) at-
tacks
D ete cti on methods of physical layer, link layer, rout-
ing layer, transport layer and appli catio n layer at-
tacks;
De fensi ve mechanisms of physical lay e r, link layer, routing
layer, tran s p ort layer and application layer attacks;
7. Conclusions
In this paper, we analyze different dimensions of WSN’s
security, present a wide variety of WSNs’ link layer at-
tacks and classify them; our approach to classify and
compare the WSN’s link layer attacks based on different
extracted features of WSN’s link layer, attacks’ and at-
tackers’ properties, such as the threat model of WSNs,
link layer attacks’ nature, goals and results, their strate-
gies and effects and finally their associated detection and
defensive techniques against these attacks to handle them,
22Such as radio waves and ultrasound, measuring distance between nodes and
comparing packet send and receive time with threshold;
23Geographical leashes and Temporal leashes Physical monitoring of field
devices and regular network monitoring by using source routing; monitoring
system may use packet leach techniques;
24suspicious nod e detection by sig nal strength; a proactive rou ting protocol b ased
on the hierarchical tree construction;
S. MOHAMMADI ET AL.
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
82
independently and comprehensively. Table 6 presents
how much percentage of WSNs’ link layer attacks are
occurring based on any one attacks’ classifications fea-
tures. Figure 10 shows most affected features of WSNs’
link layer attacks. Our most important findings are in-
cluding:
Discussion typical WSNs’ link layer attacks along
with their characteristics, in comprehensive;
Classification and comprehensive comparison of
WSNs’ link layer attacks to each other;
Link layer encryption and authentication mecha-
nisms can protect against outsiders, mote-class at-
tackers and link layer attacks such as link layer
jamming, traffic manipulation and acknowledge-
ment spoofing;
Encryption is not enough and inefficient for inside
attacks and laptop-class attackers; but clustering
protocols can provide most secure solutions against
inside attacks and compromised nodes;
The link layer attacks are often launching combina-
Table 6. Occurred percentage of each attacks’ classification
features.
Attack or attacker
feature Criteria Percent (percentage
of occurred)
Interruption 7.6
Interception 30.7
Modification 84.6
Security class
Fabrication 46.1
Confidentiality 30.7
Integrity 76.9
Availability 76.9
Attack threat
Authenticity 38.4
Internal 23
Attacker
location External 100
Mote-class 100
Attacking
device Laptop-class 100
Passive 7.6
Threat
model
Attacks on
WSN’s
protocols Active 92.3
Disrupt
communication 30.7
Authentication 23
Authorization 23
Passive
eavesdrop 23
Attacker purpose
Unfairness 84.6
Physical
(hardware) 15.4
Logical-internal
services 61.5
Attack main targ et
Logical-provided
services 92.3
tional;
The different kinds of link layer attacks may be
used same strategies;
The same type of defensive mechanisms can be
used in multiple link layer attacks, such as misbe-
havior detection;
The accuracy of solutions against link layer attacks
depends on the characteristics of the WSN’s appli-
cation domai n;
As presented in table6, 84.6 percent of link layer
attacks’ nature is modification; 30.7 percent of link
layer attacks threaten confidentiality, etc;
As shown in Figure 10, the nature of 84.6 percent
of WSNs’ link layer attacks is modification; 76.9
percent of them are targeting integrity and avail-
ability; most of these attacks are out of the WSNs’
range (external: 100 percent) and lead to high-level
damages (active attacks: 92.3 percent); 84.6 percent
of attacks’ purpose is unfairness; 92.3 percent of
link layer attacks’ main target is WSNs’ logical
provided services;
This work makes us enable to iden tify the purpose and
capabilities of the attackers; also the go al, final resu lt and
effects of the attacks on the WSNs’ functionality. The
next step of our work is considering other attacks on
WSNs. We hope by reading this paper, readers can have
a better view of link layer attacks and aware from some
defensive techniques against them; as a result, they can
take better and more extensive security mechanisms to
design secure WSNs.
Figure 10. most affected features (have maximum values)
on wsns’ link layer attacks.
S. MOHAMMADI ET AL.
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JIS
83
8. Future works
We also can research about following topics:
Securing wireless communication links against ea-
vesdropping, collision and DoS attacks;
Resources limitations techniques;
Using public key cryptography and digital signa-
ture in WSNs (of course with attention to WSN’s
constraints);
Countermeasures for combinational link layer at-
tacks;
Designing proper link layer (MAC25) protocols for
WSNs;
Optimizing existing WSNs’ MAC protocols;
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