One of the most attractive areas of research is Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET), which has a number of movable nodes with no infrastructure. Independent nodes are able to move freely inside or leave the network so mobile ad hoc networks are flexible and dynamic topology, MANETs are simply configurable by themselves, easy to deploy, no need for existing infrastructure, and these abilities make them one of the modern eras for industries. Most dangerous and powerful attacks in MANETs are wormhole attack and detection it is very difficult. This paper seeks to study and analyze challenges, security issues of MANETs and one of the severe attacks “wormhole attack,” and its detection and prevention methods, routing protocols used to identify and prevent this attack. These methods are able to identify and avoid the wormhole attacks; but they are not very efficient and have some weaknesses. There is no common algorithm that fits well against the wormhole attack.