On securing dynamic home agent address discovery of on-board mobile router in mobile IPv6 networks

In on-board mobile networks, users are connected to a local network that attaches to the Internet via a mobile router and a wireless link. The mobile router has a central role in servicing the mobile network, which makes the security of the mobile router crucial. The security of mobility management protocols used by mobile router, such as Mobile IPv6, have been studied thoroughly. However, the security of configuration protocols for mobile routers has received very little attention. In this paper, we focus on the security of dynamic home agent address discovery (DHAAD) protocol, a protocol that allows mobile router to automatically configure its home agent. We first present some vulnerabilities in the DHAAD protocol which can be exploited by attackers to launch denial of service attacks (DOS) against the mobile router. Next, we present a secure version of the DHAAD protocol. Finally, we provide an analysis of the effectiveness and overhead of our protocol extension.