Node capture attack detection and defence in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor network (WSN) applications are often deployed under hostile environments. Monitoring sensor nodes carefully, detecting and providing defence against malicious activity in the region is a challenging task. Legitimate sensor nodes may be captured by an adversary to extract important security information regarding shared secrets and cryptographic keys. This type of attack may result in a severe WSN security breach. Using ‘tamper-resistant’ nodes for securing communication in a WSN cannot be considered as a solution against these attacks as it increases the network cost tremendously. Nevertheless, destroying a legitimate node by erasing its memory and destroying its radio service based on a misjudgement may bring severe damage to the WSN. The authors propose the novel sensor node capture attack detection and defence (SCADD) protocol. SCADD provides a cost-effective solution against the node compromise and capture attacks in WSNs, enhancing the overall WSN security for security-sensitive applications. This protocol consists of two building blocks: node attack detection block and defence advocating measure block. The former provides strategic-based attack detection to eliminate the possibility of misjudgement and the latter uses a self-destruction defence measure against node capture attack, without actually destroying the node's radio service, to avoid a major security breach.