Paper Info
Title
A moving target defense mechanism for MANETs based on identity virtualization
Abstract
Mechanisms for continuously changing or shifting a system's attack surface are emerging as game-changers in cyber security. In this paper, we propose a novel defense mechanism for protecting the identity of nodes in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks and defeat the attacker's reconnaissance efforts. The proposed mechanism turns a classical attack mechanism - Sybil - into an effective defense mechanism, with legitimate nodes periodically changing their virtual identity in order to increase the uncertainty for the attacker. To preserve communication among legitimate nodes, we modify the network layer by introducing (i) a translation service for mapping virtual identities to real identities; (ii) a protocol for propagating updates of a node's virtual identity to all legitimate nodes; and (iii) a mechanism for legitimate nodes to securely join the network. We show that the proposed approach is robust to different types of attacks, and also show that the overhead introduced by the update protocol can be controlled by tuning the update frequency.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1109/CNS.2013.6682717
Communications and Network Security
Keywords
Field
DocType
cryptography,mobile ad hoc networks,protocols,Sybil,attack surface,classical attack mechanism,cyber security,game-changers,identity virtualization,mobile ad hoc networks,network layer,novel defense mechanism,reconnaissance efforts,translation service,update protocol,virtual identity
Virtualization,Mobile ad hoc network,Attack surface,Computer science,Computer security,Computer network,Ad hoc wireless distribution service,Adaptive quality of service multi-hop routing,Optimized Link State Routing Protocol,Wireless ad hoc network,Vehicular ad hoc network
Conference
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
2474-025X
11
0.81
References 
Authors
8
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Massimiliano Albanese138734.58
Alessandra De Benedictis2282.60
Sushil Jajodia393751839.16
Kun Sun414212.80