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On Cellular Botnets: Measuring the Impact of Malicious Devices on a Cellular Network Core
- In Proc. 16th Conference on Computer and Communications Security
, 2009
"... The vast expansion of interconnectivity with the Internet and the rapid evolution of highly-capable but largely insecure mobile devices threatens cellular networks. In this paper, we characterize the impact of the large scale compromise and coordination of mobile phones in attacks against the core o ..."
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Cited by 59 (5 self)
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The vast expansion of interconnectivity with the Internet and the rapid evolution of highly-capable but largely insecure mobile devices threatens cellular networks. In this paper, we characterize the impact of the large scale compromise and coordination of mobile phones in attacks against the core of these networks. Through a combination of measurement, simulation and analysis, we demonstrate the ability of a botnet composed of as few as 11,750 compromised mobile phones to degrade service to area-code sized regions by 93%. As such attacks are accomplished through the execution of network service requests and not a constant stream of phone calls, users are unlikely to be aware of their occurrence. We then investigate a number of significant network bottlenecks, their impact on the density of compromised nodes per base station and how they can be avoided. We conclude by discussing a number of countermeasures that may help to partially mitigate the threats posed by such attacks. 1.
On the exploitation of cdf based wireless scheduling
, 2009
"... Abstract—Channel-aware scheduling strategies- such as the CDF Scheduler (CS) algorithm for the CDMA/HDR systems-provide an effective mechanism for utilizing the channel data rate for improving throughput performance in wireless data networks by exploiting channel fluctuations. A highly desired prope ..."
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Cited by 6 (2 self)
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Abstract—Channel-aware scheduling strategies- such as the CDF Scheduler (CS) algorithm for the CDMA/HDR systems-provide an effective mechanism for utilizing the channel data rate for improving throughput performance in wireless data networks by exploiting channel fluctuations. A highly desired property of such a scheduling strategy is that its algorithm will be stable, in the sense that no user has incentive ”cheating ” the algorithm in order to increase his/her channel share (on the account of others). We present a scheme by which coordination allows a group of users to gain permanent increase in both their time slot share and in their throughput, on the expense of others, by misreporting their rates. We show that for large populations consisting of regular and coordinated users in equal numbers, the ratio of allocated time slots between a coordinated user and a regular one converges to e − 1 ≈ 1.7. Our scheme targets the very fundamental principle of CS (as opposed to just attacking implementation aspects), which bases its scheduling decisions on the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the channel rates reported by users. Our scheme works both for the continuous channel spectrum and the discrete channel spectrum versions of the problem. I.
On the Vulnerability of the Proportional Fairness Scheduler to Retransmission Attacks
"... Abstract—Channel aware schedulers of modern wireless net-works – such as the popular Proportional Fairness Scheduler (PFS) – improve throughput performance by exploiting channel fluctuations while maintaining fairness among the users. In order to simplify the analysis, PFS was introduced and vastly ..."
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Cited by 3 (1 self)
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Abstract—Channel aware schedulers of modern wireless net-works – such as the popular Proportional Fairness Scheduler (PFS) – improve throughput performance by exploiting channel fluctuations while maintaining fairness among the users. In order to simplify the analysis, PFS was introduced and vastly investigated in a model where frame losses do not occur, which is of course not the case in practical wireless networks. Recent studies focused on the efficiency of various implementations of PFS in a realistic model where frame losses can occur. In this work we show that the common straight forward adaptation of PFS to frame losses exposes the system to a malicious attack (which can alternatively be caused by malfunctioning user equipment) that can drastically degrade the performance of innocent users. We analyze the factors behind the vulnerability of the system and propose a modification of PFS designed for the frame loss model which is resilient to such malicious attack while maintaining the fairness properties of original PFS. I.
Selfish Manipulation of Cooperative Cellular Communications via Channel Fabrication
"... In today’s cellular networks, user equipment (UE) have suffered from low spectral efficiency at cell-edge region due to high interference from adjacent base stations (BSs), which share the same spectral radio resources. In the recently proposed cooperative cellular networks, geographically separated ..."
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In today’s cellular networks, user equipment (UE) have suffered from low spectral efficiency at cell-edge region due to high interference from adjacent base stations (BSs), which share the same spectral radio resources. In the recently proposed cooperative cellular networks, geographically separated multiple BSs cooperate on transmission in order to improve the UE’s signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) at cell-edge region. The service provider of the system dynamically assigns the cluster of BSs to achieve higher SINR for the UE while optimizing the use of system radio resources. Although it is the service provider that makes the the clustering decision for the UE, the service provider relies on the UE’s input to the decision; i.e., the channel states from the adjacent BSs to the UE. In essence, the operation of the cooperative cellular netwokrs heavily relies on the trust in the UEs. In this paper, we propose a new selfish attack against the cooperative cellular networks; an adversary reprograms her UE to report fabricated channel information to cause the service provider to make a decision that benefits the adversary while wasting its system resources. We evaluate the proposed attack in a cooperative cellular network having various performance goals on the simulation-based experiments and show that the adversary can trick the service provider into expending 3.7 times more radio resources for the adversary and, accordingly, the adversary achieves up to 16 dB SINR gain. Finally, we propose a thresholdbased countermeasure for the service provider to detect the attack with approximately 90 % of accuracy.
A Study on False Channel Condition Reporting Attacks in Wireless Networks ⋆
"... Abstract. Wireless networking protocols are increasingly being designed to exploit a user’s measured channel condition; we call such protocols channel-aware. Each user reports its measured channel condition to a manager of wireless resources and a channel-aware protocol uses these reports to determi ..."
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Abstract. Wireless networking protocols are increasingly being designed to exploit a user’s measured channel condition; we call such protocols channel-aware. Each user reports its measured channel condition to a manager of wireless resources and a channel-aware protocol uses these reports to determine how resources are allocated to users. In a channel-aware protocol, each user’s reported channel condition affects the performance of every other user. A possible attack against channelaware protocols is false feedback of channel condition. The deployment of channel-aware protocols increases the risks posed by false feedback. In this paper, we study the potential impact of an attacker that falsely reports its channel condition and propose a defense mechanism to securely estimate channel condition. We analyze our mechanism and evaluate the system performance deploying our mechanism through simulation. Our evaluation shows that our mechanism effectively thwarts channel condition misreporting attack.
On the Exploitation of CDF based Wireless Scheduling
"... Channel-aware scheduling strategies- such as the CDF scheduler (CS) algorithm- provide an effective mechanism for utilizing the channel data rate for improving throughput performance in wireless data networks by exploiting channel fluctuations. A highly desired property of such a scheduling strategy ..."
Abstract
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Channel-aware scheduling strategies- such as the CDF scheduler (CS) algorithm- provide an effective mechanism for utilizing the channel data rate for improving throughput performance in wireless data networks by exploiting channel fluctuations. A highly desired property of such a scheduling strategy is that its algorithm is stable, in the sense that no user has incentive ”cheating ” the algorithm in order to increase his/hers channel share (on the account of others). Considering a single user we show that no such user can increase his/hers channel share by misreporting the channel capacity. In contrast, considering a group of users, we present a scheme by which coordination allows them to gain permanent increase in both their time slots share and in their throughput on the expense of others, by misreporting their rates. We show that for large populations consisting of regular and coordinated users in equal numbers, the ratio of allocated time slots between a coordinated and a regular user converges to e − 1 ≈ 1:7. Our scheme targets the very fundamental principle of CS (as opposed to just attacking implementation aspects), which bases its scheduling decisions on the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the channel rates reported by users. Our scheme works both for the continuous channel spectrum and the discrete channel spectrum versions of the problem. Finally, we outline a modified CDF scheduler immune to such attacks.
