Attacking Beacon-Enabled 802.15.4 Networks

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard has attracted time-critical applications in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) because of its beacon-enabled mode and Guaranteed Time Slots (GTSs). However, the GTS management scheme's built-in security mechanisms still leave the 802.15.4 MAC vulnerable to attacks. Further, the existing techniques in the literature for securing 802.15.4 either focus on non beacon-enabled mode 802.15.4 or cannot defend against insider attacks for beacon-enabled mode 802.15.4. In this paper they illustrate this by demonstrating attacks on the availability and integrity of a beacon-enabled 802.15.4 sensor network.