The Cicada Attack: Degradation and Denial of Service in IR Ranging

• Presented at: International Conference on Ultra-Wideband, Nanjing, China, September 20-23, 2010
• Published in: International Conference on Ultra-Wideband
• Publication date: 2010

We demonstrate that an interferer with malicious intentions can significantly degrade the performance of impulse radio (IR) ranging. The cicada attack we have developed can decrease the distance (degradation of service) measured by ranging algorithms designed to cope with weak NLOS conditions; it can also jam communication (denial of service). The attack is easy to mount and can be effective even against receivers designed to cope with benign multi-user interference. We also sketch possible countermeasures.

Keywords: ranging ; secure ranging ; IR-UWB ; physical layer attacks ; NCCR-MICS ; NCCR-MICS/Secu

Reference

• EPFL-CONF-149353

Record created on 2010-06-14, modified on 2012-03-20