Protecting Cluster Head from Sybil Attack in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor network routing protocols are basically used to provide the function of data routing towards the sink and are vulnerable to various attacks. LEACH is a one of the routing protocol used for clustered implementation of wireless sensor network with Received Signal Strength based dynamic selection of Cluster Heads. But, as with other routing protocols, the LEACH is also exposed to attacks when the malicious sensor node becomes the Cluster Head by launching Sybil attack. Cluster heads are vulnerable to various malicious attacks and this greatly affects the performance of the wireless sensor network. Cryptographic and non-cryptographic approaches to detect the presence of attack also exist but they lack efficiency in some way. Cryptographic approaches to prevent this attack are not so helpful though some non-cryptographic methods to detect the attack also exist but they are not too efficient as they result in large test packet overhead. In this paper, we propose SRSRP (Sybil Resistant Secure Routing Protocol) extension to LEACH protocol so as to protect the cluster head against Sybil attack. SRSRP is base on encryption using Armstrong number and decryption using AES algorithm to verify the identity of cluster head. The proposed technique is implemented in NS2, the experimental results clearly indicate the proposed technique has significant capability for the detection of Sybil attack launched for making the malicious node as the cluster head.