Man-in-the-Middle Attack Detection and Localization Based on Cross-Layer Location Consistency

Abstract

As a promising communication paradigm in the 5G era, IEEE 802.11ad 60GHz mmWave communication has many desirable properties, including high bandwidth, narrow beam, high transmission quality, and low mutual-interference. However, recently revealed Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack can endanger the security and privacy of mmWave communication systems. Existing MITM attack detection solutions, established on ideal assumptions, neglect the fact that a MITM attacker can change its transmitting power and make it hard to be detected. In this backdrop, a cross-layer location consistency-based MITM detection and localization algorithm is introduced in this paper. Firstly, we propose a positioning algorithm based on the information of the physical layer with a directional antenna sector propagation model; secondly, based on the information at the MAC layer, we propose a MITM attack detection scheme and a sector consistency check algorithm; thirdly, a MITM attack detection and localization algorithm using cross-layer information is proposed. Simulation results have shown that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect the MITM attack and its positioning error is less than 0.53m in typical parameter settings.

Keywords

• Millimeter-wave communication
• man-in-the-middle attack
• detection
• cross-layer