Virtual Networks under Attack: Disrupting Internet Coordinate Systems

Mohamed Ali Kaafar (1) , Laurent Mathy (2) , Thierry Turletti (1) , Walid Dabbous (1)

1 PLANETE - Protocols and applications for the Internet
2 Computing Department [Lancaster]

The recently proposed coordinates-based systems for network positioning have been shown to be accurate, with very low distance prediction error. However, these systems often rely on nodes coordination and assume that information reported by probed nodes is correct. In this paper, we identify different attacks against coordinates embedding systems and study the impact of such attacks on two recently proposed representative positioning systems, namely Vivaldi and NPS. Such attacks can seriously disrupt the operations of the coordinate systems and therefore the virtual networks and applications relying on them for distance measurements. We present a simulation study of attacks carried out by malicious nodes that provide biased coordinates information and delay measurement probes. We experiment with attack strategies that aim to (i) introduce disorder in the system, (ii) fool honest nodes to move far away from their correct positions and (iii) isolate particular target nodes in the system through collusion. Our findings confirm the susceptibility of the coordinate systems to such attacks.

Mots clés: Overlay Networks; security; network positioning systems

Domaines: Cryptographie et sécurité [cs.CR]; Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Mohamed Ali Kaafar, Laurent Mathy, Thierry Turletti, Walid Dabbous. Virtual Networks under Attack: Disrupting Internet Coordinate Systems. [Research Report] 2006, pp.11. ⟨inria-00085296⟩