Attacks on host tracker in SDN controller: Investigation and prevention

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a novel paradigm in networking that changed the way the conventional networks are built and managed. The idea of SDN is based upon the dissociation of the control plane from networking devices to better optimize each. The control of the whole network becomes the responsibility of the controller. In an SDN network, locations of all hosts can be monitored with the host tracking service (HTS) in SDN controller. However, HTS may not support host authentication mechanisms. In this paper, we reveal that an attacker could attack this vulnerability of HTS, which could lead to host impersonation attack, man-in-the-middle attack, and denial-of-service attack. In addition, we also discuss and propose the possible countermeasure for this issue.