A Neighbor-Based Detection Scheme for wireless sensor networks against node replication attacks

Most of sensor network applications rely on deploying large amount of sensor nodes in unattended areas, leaving sensor nods suffer from node capture attacks in which the adversary compromises the node and retrieves secret information from the node. Moreover, the adversary can launch node replication attacks or clone attacks by loading secret information into several replicated nodes and rejoining these nodes to execute malicious behaviors or subvert underlying protocols. In this paper we propose a neighbor-based detection scheme (NBDS) to counteract node replication attacks. Compare with previous distributed schemes that periodically detect replicated nodes, NBDS not only provides near real-time detection but also achieves lower communication and memory costs. Further, the probability of detecting replicated nodes in NBDS is much higher than previous schemes.