On the Tradeoff between MAC-Layer and Network-Layer Topology-Controlled Malware Spreading Schemes in Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

Significant interest has been raised recently in wireless networks in modeling and dealing effectively with different types of attacks. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the attacker's perspective and based on a probabilistic framework we study intelligent strategies for spreading malicious software, in order to realize the potentials of such attacks. The considered attack schemes are based on the topology control capabilities of wireless nodes and may be realized either at the Network layer by using node degree related information or the MAC layer by setting attackers to sleep for energy conservation purposes. To the best of our knowledge this is the first attempt to adopt the use of sleeping schedules in order to eventually increase attack efficiency. We compare the performance of the two families of strategies using both time-independent and time-dependent attack metrics. Our evaluation analysis reveals an inherent tradeoff between the two families that depends, among others, on the idle energy consumption and the network density.