Detection of Mobile Replica Node Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks using Sequential Hypothesis Testing

Abstract

Replica attack is a critical concern in the security of wireless sensor networks. Wireless sensor networks are known to be vulnerable to a variety of attacks that could undermine normal sensor network operations. Unattended nature of wireless sensor networks leads to mobile replica node attack. An adversary can capture and compromise sensor nodes, make replicas of them, and then mount a variety of attacks with these replicas. These replica node attacks are dangerous because they allow the attacker to leverage the compromise of a few nodes to exert control over much of the network. Previous works on replica detection rely on fixed sensor locations and hence do not work in mobile sensor networks. The proposed work is a fast and effective mobile replica node detection scheme using the Sequential Probability Ratio Test. This paper works are designed for rooting out the sources of possible threats by quickly detecting and removing compromised nodes and preventing wide-spread node compromise through replica node and worm propagation attacks.