Protection Against Packet Fragmentation Attacks at 6LoWPAN Adaptation Layer

Abstract

The IPv6 over low-power wireless personal area network (6LoWPAN) typically includes devices that work together to connect the physical environment to real-world applications, e.g., wireless sensors. However, since, in some cases, security may be requested at the application layer as need, and then, security problems should be identified such as security threats model, threats analysis, attack scenarios, and light-weight security algorithms etc. This paper presents an analysis of security threats to the 6LoWPAN adaptation layer from the point of view of IP packet fragmentation attacks. And to protect replay attacks being occurred by IP packet fragmentations and to guarantee packet freshness, we also propose a protection mechanism against packet fragmentation attacks. The mechanism uses timestamp and nonce options that are added to the fragmented packets at the 6LoWPAN adaptation layer.