Securing Wireless Mesh Networks By Ben Salem & Jean-Pierre Hubaux Presented by Akilesh Sadassivam (Group Leader) Harish Varadarajan Selvaganesh Dharmeswaran

Introduction Wireless Mesh Networks is gaining popularity Security in WMNs still in infancy Identifies three fundamental operations in Wireless Mesh Networks that need to be secured

Wireless Mesh Networks Used to provide internet connectivity over a large geographic area Uses economic transit access points instead of multiple costly wireless hot spots One wireless hot spot connects to the internet and the TAPs connect to the WHS TAPs use multi-hopping to relay traffic to the WHS Clients associate themselves to the TAPs

Characteristics ● Difference between WMNs and Cellular Networks ● Single-hop vs Multi-hop ● Centralized Security operations vs Decentralized ● Multi-hopping in WMNs pose routing difficulties and security issues ● Fairness problem in WMNs

Characteristics ● Difference between Internet and WMNs ● Internet : Routers :: WMNs : TAPs ● Routers are physically protected ● TAPs are not ; contributes to their cost-effectiveness ● Hence, tampering and replication of TAPs are easy to perform

Communication in WMNs Levels of Authentication TAP3 authenticates MC Mutual authentication between TAPs & WHS (initialization) Mutual authentication between TAPs & WHS (re-initialization) Mutual authentication during data transfer

Security Challenges Detection of Corrupt TAPs Securing routing mechanisms Ensuring fairness

Detection of Corrupt TAPs Removal or replacement of TAPs Modify network topology Accessing internal state of TAPs without changing it Passive attack Accessing internal state and modifying it. Modify the routing algorithm Cloning captured device; installing replicas Inject false data conveniently

Secure Multi-hop Routing Attacks – tamper routing messages, modify TAP’s internal state, use replicate nodes Prevention Use secure routing protocols Detect adversary replicated nodes based on known network topology Identify source of disturbance of DOS attack and if possible, disable it

Fairness Closely related to number of hops Fairness should be implemented based on number of clients

Attacks

Implications

Generalized WMNs Vehicular Networks Mobile TAPs Need for secure and accurate positioning information Multi-operator Networks TAPs controlled by multiple operators Challenge – same spectrum used by multiple operators Solution – use Multi-radio/Multi-channel TAPs.

Conclusion This paper analyses the security challenges of Wireless Mesh Networks. Introduces security challenges and fundamental security operations. Pioneering attempt in addressing security of WMN