Detection of Wormhole Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wormhole attacks can destabilize or disable wireless sensor networks. In a typical wormhole attack, the attacker receives packets at one point in the network, forwards them through a wired or wireless link with less latency than the network links, and relays them to another point in the network. This paper describes a wormhole detection algorithm for wireless sensor networks, which detects wormholes based on the distortions they create in a network. The two characteristics are to keep tracks of all its neighboring nodes and checks if a node received is from its neighbor or not. The main advantage of the algorithm is that it can provide the approximate location of wormholes, which is useful in implementing countermeasures.