A survey of routing attacks in mobile ad hoc networks

Recently, mobile ad hoc networks became a hot research topic among researchers due to their flexibility and independence of network infrastructures, such as base stations. Due to unique characteristics, such as dynamic network topology, limited bandwidth, and limited battery power, routing in a MANET is a particularly challenging task compared to a conventional network. Early work in MANET research has mainly focused on developing an efficient routing mechanism in such a highly dynamic and resource-constrained network. At present, several efficient routing protocols have been proposed for MANET. Most of these protocols assume a trusted and cooperative environment. However, in the presence of malicious nodes, the networks are vulnerable to various kinds of attacks. In MANET, routing attacks are particularly serious. In this article, we investigate the state-of-the-art of security issues in MANET. In particular, we examine routing attacks, such as link spoofing and colluding misrelay attacks, as well as countermeasures against such attacks in existing MANET protocols.