An Analysis of Collaborative Attacks on Mobile Ad hoc Networks

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) consists of a set of communicating wireless mobile nodes or devices that do not have any form of fixed infrastructure or centralized authority. The security in MANET has become a significant and active topic within the research community. This is because of high demand in sharing streaming video and audio in various applications, one MANET could be setup quickly to facilitate communications in a hostile environment such as battlefield or emergency situation likes disaster rescue operation. In spite of the several attacks aimed at specific nodes in MANET that have been uncovered, some attacks involving multiple nodes still receive little attention. A reason behind this is because people make use of security mechanisms applicable to wired networks in MANET and overlook the security measures that apply to MANET. Furthermore, it may also have to do with the fact that no survey or taxonomy has been done to clarify the characteristics of different multiple node attacks. This thesis addresses the aforementioned gap by providing a proper definition and categorization of collaborative attacks against MANET from the various multiple node attacks found. Simulation using OPNET Modeler was used to investigate the performance impact of a collaborative blackhole attack on a mobile ad hoc network. Network throughput, packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay are the performance metrics used in our result analysis. Based on the analyses of performance metrics made, we realised the consequences of a collaborative blackhole attack on MANET. In order to prevent or reduce these consequences, we also discuss a number of mitigation plans to counteract the different kinds of collaborative attacks. Keywords: MANET, Collaborative Attacks, Multiple Node, Blackhole.Contact Information: Author(s): Cong Hoan Vu Address: Folkparksvägen 19:08, 372 40 Ronneby, Sweden. E-mail: vuconghoan@gmail.com Adeyinka Soneye Address: Polhemsgatan 27B, LGH 30, 371 40 Karlskrona, Sweden. E-mail: adso07@student.bth.s