Black Hole Attack on Multicast Routing Protocols

A mobile ad-hoc network is an autonomous system of mobile nodes connected by wireless links in which nodes cooperate by forwarding packets for each other thereby enabling communication beyond direct wireless transmission range. The nature of ad-hoc networks makes them vulnerable to attacks especially in routing protocols. Providing security in mobile adhoc networks has been a major issue over the recent years. One of the prominent multicast routing protocols used in ad-hoc networks is Multicast Ad-hoc On Demand Distance Vector (MAODV) protocol. The security of MAODV is compromised by a primary routing attack called black hole attack. In this attack a malicious node advertises itself as having the shortest path to the node whose packets it wants to intercept. This paper discusses the impact of black hole attack on MAODV protocol under various scenarios.