A Malicious Behavior Awareness and Defense Countermeasure Based on LoRaWAN Protocol

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Network Security
• Internet of Things

Background:

• Low Power Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) is widely adopted in IoT, but faces security vulnerabilities.
• Malicious actors exploit LoRaWAN's over-the-air-activation (OTAA) process and plain text transmission for attacks like replay attacks.
• Root key leakage compromises wireless sensor network integrity, allowing unauthorized node access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel security countermeasure, the Secure-Packet-Transmission scheme (SPT), for LoRaWAN networks.
• To address security flaws in LoRaWAN standard v1.1, specifically preventing replay attacks when root keys are compromised.
• To enhance the security of the OTAA process in LoRaWAN.

Main Methods:

• Redefinition of the join-request packet format within the LoRaWAN protocol.
• Implementation of a new One Time Password (OTP) encryption method.
• Modification of the OTAA transmission strategy between LoRa nodes and the network server.
• Security evaluation using Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic and Scyther tool.
• Feasibility and performance analysis through simulations and a testbed.

Main Results:

• The proposed SPT scheme effectively prevents replay attacks, even with compromised root keys.
• Security evaluations confirm that the proposed scheme achieves its security objectives.
• Experimental analysis demonstrates SPT's lightweight and efficient nature.
• SPT successfully defends against malicious behavior in LoRaWAN networks.

Conclusions:

• The Secure-Packet-Transmission scheme (SPT) offers a robust solution to enhance LoRaWAN security.
• SPT provides effective defense against replay attacks and unauthorized node access during OTAA.
• The scheme is suitable for resource-constrained IoT devices due to its lightweight and efficient design.