Related Concepts
Node Compromises; Secure Routing
Definition
Packet-dropping attack is a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack that drops packets to make the source and the destination perceive disconnection or degradation of path quality.
Background
In an ad hoc network, nodes form the network collaboratively without using any infrastructure. Different from the Internet, ad hoc nodes are both end hosts and routers. In order to deliver packets, they must ask other nodes to forward packets in the network. Such cooperation is critical to the aliveness of the network. However, since nodes are not trustable in ad hoc networks, a malicious or a compromised node, residing on a path, can drop packets forwarded along that path. Such malicious actions disrupt normal packet forwarding and may further cause denial of service (DoS) or change the network-routing topology.
Theory
Packet-dropping attacks can target various kinds of packets at or above the network layer. It requires attacking nodes...
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Recommended Reading
Kuzmanovic A, Knightly EW (2003) Low-rate TCP-targeted denial of service attacks: the shrew vs. the mice and elephants, Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM, Karlsruhe, Germany, pp 75–86
Aad I, Hubaux JP, Knightly E (2004) Denial of service resilience in ad hoc networks. Proceedings of ACM MobiCom, Philadelphia, pp 202–215
Zhang X, Wu SF, Fu Z, Wu TL (2000) Malicious packet dropping: how it might impact the TCP performance and how we can detect it. Proceedings of IEEE ICNP, pp 263–272
Papadimitratos P, Haas ZJ (2003) Secure message transmission in mobile ad hoc networks. Ad Hoc Networks J 1(1):193–209
Buchegger S, Le Boudec J-Y (2002) Performance analysis of the CONFIDANT protocol (cooperation of nodes – fairness in dynamic ad hoc networks). Proceedings of ACM MobiHoc, Philadelphia, pp 226–236
Shao M, Zhu S, Cao G, La Porta T, Mohapatra P (2008) A cross-layer dropping attack in video streaming over ad hoc networks. Proceedings of Securecomm, Istanbul
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Gu, Q. (2011). Packet-Dropping Attack. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_635
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_635
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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