NIS07-5: Security Vulnerabilities in Channel Assignment of Multi-Radio Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks

In order to fully exploit the aggregate bandwidth available in the radio spectrum, future wireless mesh networks (WMN) are expected to take advantage of multiple orthogonal channels, with nodes having the ability to communicate with multiple neighbors simultaneously using multiple radios (NICs) over orthogonal channels. Dynamic channel assignment is critical for ensuring effective utilization of the non-overlapping channels. Several algorithms have been proposed in recent years, which aim at achieving this. However, all these schemes inherently assume that the mesh nodes are well-behaved without any malicious intentions. In this paper, we expose the vulnerabilities in channel assignment algorithms and unveil three new security attacks: Network Endo-Parasite Attack (NEPA), Channel Ecto-parasite Attack (CEPA) and low-cost ripple effect attack (LORA). These attacks can be launched with relative ease by a malicious node and can cause significant degradation in the network performance. We also evaluate the effectiveness of these attacks through simulation based experiments and briefly discuss possible solutions to counter these new threats.