Denial of Sleep attacks in Bluetooth Low Energy wireless sensor networks

Many of the benefits of an Internet of Things sensor network model stem from the extremely long service life of its base sensing layer. When data from the base sensing layer is provided by very low power technologies, such as Bluetooth Low Energy, a class of vulnerabilities called Denial of Sleep attacks can be especially devastating to the network. These attacks can reduce the lifespan of the sensing nodes by several orders of magnitude, rendering the network largely unusable. This paper investigates a Denial of Sleep attack against the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol that allows a malicious actor to rapidly drain the battery of a targeted sensing node, including power analysis, simulation results, and an example implementation. The outcome will be utilized to build better defenses and more predictable environments.