Attacks against Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Routing Protocols

This paper outlines some important issues that relate to security attacks against mobile ad hoc networks from research carried out at Network Research Group, University of Plymouth, on designing intrusion detection system for mobile ad hoc network. In designing security mechanisms for mobile ad hoc networks, one must consider the attacks variations as well as the characteristics of the attacks that could be launched against the ad hoc networks. The discussions of these two aspects are summarized in this paper. This paper also classifies several common attacks against the ad hoc networks routing protocols based upon the techniques that could be used by attackers to exploit routing messages. Those techniques are modification, interception, fabrication, and interruption.