SYBIL ATTACK SIMULATION AND MITIGATION IN UNETSTACK

Abstract

Underwater networks have the potential to enable unexplored applications and to enhance our ability to observe and predict the ocean. Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are often deployed in unprecedented and hostile waters and face many security threats. Applications based on UASNs such as coastal defense, pollution monitoring, assisted navigation to name a few, require secure communication. A new set of communication protocols and cooperative coordination algorithms have been proposed to enable collaborative monitoring tasks. However, such protocols overlook security as a key performance indicator. Spoofing, altering, or replaying routing information can affect the entire network, making UASN vulnerable to routing attacks such as selective forwarding, sinkhole attack, Sybil attack, acknowledgement spoofing and HELLO flood attack. The lack of security against such threats is startling if maintained that security is indeed an important requirement in many emerging civilian and military applications. In this work, we look at one of the most prevalent attacks among UASNs which is Sybill attack and discuss mitigation approaches for it. Then, feasibly implemented the attack in UnetStack3 to simulate real-life scenario. © 2021 IEEE.