Security Threats in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are one of the fastest growing areas of research. They are an attractive technology for many applications, such as rescue and tactical operations, due to the flexibility provided by their dynamic infrastructure. However, this flexibility comes at a price and introduces new security threats. Furthermore, many conventional security solutions used for wired networks are ineffective and inefficient for the highly dynamic and resource-constrained environments where MANET use might be expected. To develop suitable security solutions for such new environments, we must first understand how MANETs can be attacked. This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of attacks against a specific type of target, namely the routing protocols used by MANETs. We introduce the security issues specific to MANETs and present a detailed classification of the attacks/attackers against these complex distributed systems. Then we discuss various proactive and reactive solutions proposed for MANETs. We outline secure routing solutions to avoid some attacks against the routing protocols based on cooperation between nodes. We also give an overview of intrusion detection in MANETs and indicate the nature of IDSs that have been proposed for MANETs in the past decade.