A Taxonomy for Denial-of-Service Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are transitioning to real-world applications, where they face attacks already experienced by the Internet and wireless ad hoc networks. One such attack is that of denial-of-service ( DOS), which we believe will only become more prevalent as sensor networks become more pervasive and accessible. With the inherent resource limitations of WSN devices, they are particularly susceptible to the consumption and destruction of these scarce resources. We present a DOS attack taxonomy to identify the attacker, his capabilities, the target of the attack, vulnerabilities used, and the end result. We survey vulnerabilities in WSNs and give possible defenses. Protecting WSNs against DOS attacks—while remaining low-cost and flexible—is a primary research challenge that bears further exploration.