Launching of a Sleep Deprivation Torture Attack on Mobility Based Clustring in Mobile AD Hoc Networks

Abstract

A MANET consists of mobile nodes that can organize themselves dynamically in an arbitrary manner, without the need of a centralized administration. The nodes in a MANET are free to move while communicating with each other using either a single or multi-hop wireless links. As a result, the topology of the MANETs is dynamic in nature. Since the topology of this network is dynamically changing and there is no central management so it becomes difficult to implement security and this gives an opportunity to intrude into the network and exploit the weaknesses of the same. Because of the fact that each node in the wireless ad-hoc network is aware of others nodes through messages over a broadcast communication channel, hence ad hoc networks are vulnerable to the various kinds of attacks. Sleep deprivation attack is one such attack which takes the advantage of characteristics of MANET and disrupts the network. It is a kind of Sybil attack where malicious node illegitimately claims multiple identities and is able to repeatedly make the same node as the cluster head. Sleep deprivation attacks are a form of denial of service attack whereby an attacker renders a pervasive computing device inoperable by draining the battery more quickly than it would be drained under normal usage. If an attacker can drain a device’s battery, for example, by having it repeatedly execute an energy-hungry program, called a sleep deprivation torture attack, or battery exhaustion. An attacker can quit attacking a battery-powered device once he/she has fully discharged the battery, and can then move on to attack another device In addition to launching a Sleep deprivation attacks in this project we also aim to disrupt the head selection algorithm of the highest degree clustering protocol. We aim to introduce a malicious node into the network known as Sybil node, which would slowly take over as the head of the cluster by impersonating itself. Once the Sybil node becomes the head of the cluster, it can disrupt will disrupt the normal function of the network included routing. In this project, we visualize how a MANET works and the way clusters are formed. In addition, we see how the communication between the mobile devices occur and how the head of a cluster is selected. Once a MANET is established, we introduce a Sybil node which would impersonate itself and unsettle the system