Secure Message Transmission in Mobile
Ad hoc Networks
Kobra Naalbandi & Zeinab Varamini
University of Science and Technology
Mazandaran,
Distributed Systems Class Seminar,
Supervisor: Hadi Salimi
zvaramini@ustmb.ac.ir and kamiri@ustmb.ac.ir
Outline

Preparation
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

Motivation
What is mobile ad hoc networks
Features of MANET
Applications of MANET
Vulnerabilities of MANET
Attack Types in MANET
Secure Message Transmission
• Secure routing discovery protocols
• Secure Transmitting Protocols

Summary

Reference
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
2 of 27
Motivation

In the next generation of wireless communication
systems, there will be a need for the rapid deployment
of independent mobile

Such network scenarios cannot rely on centralized and
organized connectivity, and can be termed as wireless
mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs)
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
3 of 27
What is Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANET)


A Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) is a system of
wireless mobile nodes that dynamically self-organize in
arbitrary and temporary network topologies
In the mobile ad hoc network, nodes can directly
communicate with all the other nodes within their radio
ranges;whereas nodes that not in the direct
communication range use intermediate node(s) to
communicate with each other
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
4 of 27
Example of Mobile Ad hoc networks
C
F
B
A
E
D
5 of 27
Features of MANET

Unreliability of wireless links between nodes.
Constantly changing topology.

No Fixed Routing/Forwarding Infrastructure

◦ MANETs don't have a fixed infrastructure(such as BTS) that
nodes can rely on for forwarding messages. This is the main
reason why the design and operation of such networks is
challenging
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
6 of 27
Applications of MANET
emergency deployments
 search and rescue missions
 military operations
 commercial applications

Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
7 of 27
Vulnerabilities of MANET

Lack of Secure Boundaries
◦ there is not such a clear secure boundary in the mobile ad hoc
network, which can be compared with the clear line of defense
in the traditional wired network

Threats from Compromised nodes Inside the
Network
◦ Since mobile nodes that can join or leave the network with
freedom, it is hard for the nodes themselves to prevent the
possible malicious behaviors from all the nodes it communicate
with .
◦ Furthermore, because of the mobility of the ad hoc network, a
compromised node can frequently change its attack target and
perform malicious behavior to different node in the network
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
8 of 27
Vulnerabilities of MANET(cont.)

Lack of Centralized Management Facility
o Ad hoc networks do not have a centralized piece of
management machinery such as a name server, which lead to
some vulnerable problems
•
Restricted Power Supply
o the nodes in the mobile ad hoc network need to consider the
restricted battery power, which will cause several problems:
 denial-of-service attacks
• a node in the mobile ad hoc network may behave in a selfish manner
when it finds that there is only limited power supply, and the
selfishness can cause some problems when there is a need for this
node to cooperate with other nodes to support some functions in
the network
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
9 of 27
Vulnerabilities of MANET (cont.)

Scalability
• the scale of the ad hoc network keeps changing all
the time: because of the mobility of the nodes in the
mobile ad hoc network, you can hardly predict how
many nodes there will be in the network in the future
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
10 of 27
Attack Types in MANET

Denial of Service (DoS)
◦ the DoS attacks are carried out by flooding some kind of network
traffic to the target so as to exhaust the processing power of the target
and make the services provided by the target become unavailable

Impersonation
◦ if there is not such a proper authentication mechanism among the
nodes, the adversary can capture some nodes in the network and make
them look like benign nodes
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
11 of 27
Attack Types in MANET (cont.)

Eavesdropping
o The goal of eavesdropping is to obtain some confidential
information that should be kept secret during the communication.

Attacks Against Routing
◦ Blackhole: a malicious node uses the routing protocol to advertise
itself as having the shortest path to the node whose packets it
wants to intercept
◦ Wormhole:In a worm hole attack,two malicious collaborating
nodes which are connected through a private network,can record
packets at one location in the network and tunnel them to another
location Through the private network and retransmits them into
the network
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
12 of 27
Attack Types in MANET (cont.)

Routing table overflow: the attacker attampts to
creat routes to nonexistent nodes.The goal Is to creat enough
routes to prevent new routes from being created or to overwhelm
the protocol implementation

Flooding Attack
◦ exhaust network resources, overall bandwidth, and individual
nodes resources of computational and battery power
◦ Countermeasures
 Calculate rate of neighbors RREQs, block if they exceed threshold
 Can not stop flooding below threshold and could block valid node if
A is spoofing real nodes.
 Use statistical analysis to detect varying rates of flooding
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
13 of 27
Secure Message Transmission
•
a secure routing protocol is a prerequisite for
an effective secure data-forwarding scheme
•
So we Concentrate on secure
routing protocol
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
14 of 27
Categorization of Secure Routing
Protocol for secure transmission
•
Secure routing discovery protocols
• Table – Driven :
•
•


Secure Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol (SAODV)
SEAD
WRP
WAR



•
•
•
•
DSR
ARIADNE
ZRP
Authenticated Routing for Ad-hoc Networks (ARAN)
Security-Aware ad hoc Routing (SAR)
Secure Routing Protocol (SRP)
Secure Link State Routing Protocol (SLSP)
◦ On – Demand
•
Secure Transmitting Protocols
• Secure message transmission(SMT)
• Secured Data based MultiPath (SDMP)
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
15 of 27
Secure Routing Protocol (SRP)

Assume a shared secret key between the
source node and the destination node
Verification of the route request/reply packet
using MAC (Message Authentication Code)
 Identities of intermediate nodes accumulated in
the route request packet

Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
16 of 27
Secure Message Transmission (SMT) Protocol
As we khonw MANET is a unknown network
because of changing topology and existence of
Malicious and selfish nodes that want to disturb
action of Network.
• So MANET is insecure NET by defination
• There is a question that is :
How can we set up a reliable connection
between Source and Destination?????????????????

Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
17 of 27
SMT phases

Phas1: Find at least one path through the
network from S to D
D
S
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
18 of 27
SMT phases (cont.)
Finding Path between S and D is Done By
protocols like Secure Routing Protocol (SRP)
 In this protocol we need more than one path :
We want an Active Path Set (APS) that show
the secure existence path.

Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
19 of 27
SMT phases (cont.)
Phase 2 : Transmit a message from S to D
 Node A is Attacker

A
D
S
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
20 of 27
SMT phases (cont.)
A
D
S

Attacker (A) can
◦ manipulate, fake or drop messages
◦ manipulate or block route
◦ wait for the best opportunity or do nothing
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
21 of 27
SMT phases (cont.)

Phase 2 consist of this stages
Note : the number of dispersed messages
is base on number of finded secure path in
APS
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
22 of 27
SMT phases (cont.)

Phase3 : APS adaptation
◦ As the source transmits the dispersed messages
across the APS, it updates the ratings of the utilized
paths based on the feedback (or its absence) provided
by the destination
o For each successful or failed piece, the rating of the
corresponding path is increased or decreased
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
23 of 27
SMT (cont.)
•
•

SMT can operate with any underlying routing
protocol, although the use of a secure protocol is
essential to reap the benefits of SMT
SMT is independent of the route discovery process
• non-operational and possibly compromised routes
are unambiguously detected at the source node, so
that newly determined routes can be entirely
different from previously utilized and discarded routes
the message dispersion ensures successful reception
even if a fraction of the message pieces is lost or
corrupted, either due to the existence of malicious
nodes, or due to the unavailability of routes
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
24 of 27
Summary
Discover a secure routing protocol that can
tolerate all attacks againts network is a subject
that can be work on it
 More over secure routing protocol we need
algorithms such as SMT that could work in
network with maliculiose node

Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
25 of 27
Reference
1.
2.
3.
4.
Dr. Harsh Sadawarti and Anuj K. Gupta, Member, IAENG" Secure
Routing Techniques for MANETs" International Journal of
Computer Theory and Engineering,Vol. 1, No. 4, October2009 .
Wenjia Li and Anupam Joshi "Security Issues in Mobile Ad Hoc
Networks- A Survey" Department of Computer Science and
Electrical Engineering University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Panagiotis Papadimitratos, Zygmunt J. Haas"Secure message
transmission in mobile ad hoc networks"Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department, Cornell University,2003.
Sarat Sreepathi, Vamsi Venigalla, Akshay Lal ,”A Survey Paper on
Security Issues Pertaining to Ad-Hoc Networks “,CSC 574
Information Systems Security
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
26 of 27
Questions
?
Secure Message in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
27 of 27