Impersonation Based Sybil attack to Disrupt the Highest Degree Clustering Algorithm in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) is a self-configuring and infrastructure-less network of mobile devices. Since the topology of this network is dynamically changing and there is no central management so it becomes difficult to implement security and this gives an opportunity to intrude into the network and exploit the weaknesses of the same. Sybil attack is one such attack which takes the advantage of characteristics of MANET and disrupts the network. In a Sybil attack malicious node illegitimately claims multiple identities. This attack has the ability to seriously disrupt various operations like data aggregation, voting, fair resource allocation scheme, misbehavior detection and routing mechanisms etc. In addition to launching a Sybil attack in this project we also aim to disrupt the head selection algorithm of highest degree clustering protocol. We aim to introduce a malicious node into the network known as Sybil node which would slowly take over as the head of the cluster by impersonating itself. Once the Sybil node becomes the head of the cluster, it can disrupt various operations and gain unfair amount of resources which would render the network ineffectual. In this project we visualize how a MANET works and the way clusters are formed. In addition we see how the communication between the mobile devices occur and how the head of a cluster is selected. Once a MANET is established we introduce a Sybil node which would impersonate itself and unsettle the system.