Detecting and preventing Sybil attacks in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In recent years, there is a rapid growth of wireless sensor networks mustered in different areas such as military, agriculture, surveillance, etc. WSNs are extremely necessitous for securing network protection. However, awful critical attacks of different kinds have been documented in these networks by many researchers. Sybil attack is one of those attacks in which a legal node is converted into a Sybil one which is a replica node with a different personality using a similar ID. In other words, Sybil attack occurs when a sensor node or base station assumes multiple identities by changing its MAC and IP addresses or other identity information. This attack mainly influences routing protocols and operations like voting, data aggregation and reputation. This paper proposes a dynamic and accurate method for Sybil attack detection and prevention. This method, combining Random Password Comparison (RPC) with Message Authentication and Passing method (MAP), will progress data transmission in the network and enhance the throughput.