Wireless Network Behavior under ICMP Ping Flood DoS Attack and Mitigation Techniques

Abstract

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is an erro r reporting and diagnostic utility and it is consider ed as a part of Internet Protocol (IP) suite. Although this protoco l is very important for ensuring correct data distribution, i t can be exploited by malicious users for conducting different Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Due to the broadcast nature of wireless co mmunication, exploitation of this kind of attack is even easier. By sending bogus ICMP redirect packets, a malicious user can either disrupt or intercept communication from a wireless access poin t. In this paper, we present our approach to simulate the ICMP Ping Flood Attack, and to analyze the effects of th is attack on wireless networks using OPNET Modeler. We propose several countermeasures against this type of attack. Simula tion results regarding the effects of link failure recovery mech anism against this type of attack are discussed .