A Trust-Aware RPL Routing Protocol to Detect Blackhole and Selective Forwarding Attacks

Abstract

This research addresses blackhole and selective forwarding routing attacks, which are fundamental security attacks on the routing of data in IoT networks. Most IoT devices today, from medical devices to connected vehicles and even smart buildings, have the capability of communicating wirelessly with one another. Although, consumers are progressively embracing the concept of connected devices, recent studies indicate that security is not high on the priority list of manufacturers especially in the way these IoT devices route and communicate data amongst themselves. Thus, it leaves the door wide open to attacks and compromises. In this study, a trust-based routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks addressing blackhole and selective forwarding attacks is proposed. We show that our proposed protocol is not only secure from blackhole and selective forwarding attacks, but also does not impose undue overheads on network traffic.