Gravitational Analysis of the In-band Wormhole Phenomenon

In-band wormhole attacks undermine routing by attracting network traffic that otherwise may have bypassed the attackers via alternate, lower-cost routes. The result gives the attackers control over the attracted traffic, allowing them to modify, delay, redirect, eavesdrop, or drop the traffic. In this paper we expand upon the gravitational analysis technique, first presented in [KSG06], for evaluating the effects of in-band wormhole attacks on OLSR routing. The gravitational analysis technique examines individual network topologies and results in the creation of a “gravitational chart” for each topology. The gravitational charts contain the necessary data to define the attractiveness of a specific wormhole configuration and the penalty incurred by source-destination pairs affected by the wormhole path. We attempt to gain insight into both node and topology vulnerability to the in-band wormhole attack by analyzing the raw data contained within the gravitational charts using several new cost, attraction, and detection metrics defined in this paper. Analysis of the gravitational charts with respect to these metrics allows both topologies and the individual nodes and paths within a topology to be quickly compared and ranked. We can then easily identify those topologies that are most or least impacted by the wormhole and assess the specific topological characteristics responsible, facilitating more efficient and effective intrusion detection system design.