OpenFlow flow table overflow attacks and countermeasures

Abstract

Software-defined Network (SDN) is proposed as a new concept in computer networks, which separates the control plane from data plane. And it provides a programmable network architecture that could facilitate network innovation rapidly. OpenFlow is a network protocol that standardizes the communications between OpenFlow controllers and OpenFlow switches. It is considered as an enabler of SDN. The flow table in OpenFlow switches plays a critical role in OpenFlow-based SDN, which stores the rules populated by the controllers for controlling and directing the packet flows in SDN. Nevertheless, they also become a new target of malicious attacks. This paper analyzes the flow table overflow attack, a type of denial of service attacks, and proposes a systematic way to mitigate the overflow in flow table.