Security Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures for Time Synchronization in IEEE802.15.4e Networks

Time synchronization is very important in the IEEE802.15.4e network which aim to industrial automation applications. It enabled high end-to-end reliability and low power wireless networking. If an adversary launches time synchronization attacks to the IEEE802.15.4e networks, the whole network communications will be paralyzed. In this paper, we present two types of attacks: 1) ASN and 2) time synchronization tree attack. In ASN attack the legitimate nodes may get an incorrect ASN value and thus can't synchronize to the normal network, while in time synchronization tree attack, the attacker can damage the structure of time synchronization tree by faking DIO packets. We propose some countermeasures which include intrusion detection algorithms, Encryption and Authentication methods to defend against these attacks. Finally, we perform time synchronization tree attack experiments. The experiment results show that the proposed mechanisms can defend against the attack.