Abstract
Routing attacks are a major security issue for Internet of Things (IoT) networks utilising routing protocols, as malicious actors can overwhelm resource-constrained devices with denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, notably rank and blackhole attacks. In this work, we study the impact of the combination of rank and blackhole attacks in the IPv6 routing protocol for low-power and lossy (RPL) networks, and we propose a new security framework for RPL-based IoT networks (SRF-IoT). The framework includes a trust-based mechanism that detects and isolates malicious attackers with the help of an external intrusion detection system (IDS). Both SRF-IoT and IDS are implemented in the Contiki-NG operating system. Evaluation of the proposed framework is based on simulations using the Whitefield framework that combines both the Contiki-NG and the NS-3 simulator. Analysis of the simulations of the scenarios under active attacks showed the effectiveness of deploying SRF-IoT with 92.8% packet delivery ratio (PDR), a five-fold reduction in the number of packets dropped, and a three-fold decrease in the number of parent switches in comparison with the scenario without SRF-IoT. Moreover, the packet overhead introduced by SRF-IoT in attack scenarios is minimal at less than 2%. Obtained results suggest that the SRF-IoT framework is an efficient and promising solution that combines trust-based and IDS-based approaches to protect IoT networks against routing attacks. In addition, our solution works by deploying a watchdog mechanism on detector nodes only, leaving unaffected the operation of existing smart devices.
Highlights
More smart devices are connecting to the Internet every day to improve our daily lives.Internet of Things (IoT) forecasts suggest that there will be more than 25.4 billion connected devices by 2030 [1]
Experimental results demonstrate that the security framework for RPL-based IoT networks (SRF-IoT) framework can effectively detect and help nodes to avoid malicious nodes
We focus on protecting the network from rank and blackhole attacks, as those could severely disrupt network operation [32]
Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) forecasts suggest that there will be more than 25.4 billion connected devices by 2030 [1]. As IoT networks become more popular, they become attractive to malicious actors, and security issues start to appear. Many malicious actors try to attack smart devices due to weak or no security measures implemented by manufacturers [2,3]. IoT networks are vulnerable to attacks in multiple layers of the IoT stack. IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL). Routing attacks such as blackhole, sinkhole, rank, version number, selective forwarding, DIS flooding, and DAO flooding attacks are extensively studied in [3,9,13,14]. We briefly explain the RPL protocol and the existing security attacks
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