Enhancing Cyber Security of LoRaWAN Gateways under Adversarial Attacks
"> Figure 1
<p>Network architecture of LoRaWAN.</p> "> Figure 2
<p>Computing unit—Raspberry Pi4 Model B.</p> "> Figure 3
<p>LoRa radio chip—Adafruit RFM96W.</p> "> Figure 4
<p>Gateway hardware and wiring setup using RPi4 and RFM96W.</p> "> Figure 5
<p>Wire cable connections between the Raspberry Pi and LoRa radio chip.</p> "> Figure 6
<p>x.509v3 certificate format.</p> "> Figure 7
<p>Scenario of packet advancement under MITM attack.</p> "> Figure 8
<p>Flow chart of the certification process in the proposed work.</p> "> Figure 9
<p>The RSSI values of the baseline scenario, the first half being the RSSI of GW-A and the second half GW-B.</p> "> Figure 10
<p>(<b>a</b>) Water height values (indicated by triangles) gathered from end-device with no attack present, (<b>b</b>) water height values with a Selective Forwarding Attack present.</p> "> Figure 11
<p>Preliminary testing area with no line of sight. R-GW permanently placed at 200 m from the ED and L-GW placed at 200 m increments up to 800 m.</p> "> Figure 12
<p>Preliminary testing area with no line of sight. Data on packages received by the NS, total vs. accepted.</p> ">
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks: LoRaWAN is vulnerable to a specific MITM attack called bit-flipping attack, which changes the content of a message between the NS and AS.
- Network Flooding Attack: Here, the end device can be captured and made to attack the rest of the network by flooding it with packets.
- Network Traffic Analysis: Known as an eavesdropping attack, this is done with a rogue gateway to receive packets and deduce some information of its contents. It would still need a key to decode it, but other information such as the activity in a certain location can be observed.
- Physical Attack: Here, the node is physically compromised, either destroyed, stolen or cloned. It is thus of high importance to have adequate protection against firmware change that could lead to the reuse of key material.
- Radio Frequency (RF) Jamming Attack: It is possible to jam the reception of a signal in a node, which could be used for more advanced attacks such as a replay attack to be effective.
- Self-Replay Attack: An attack that exploits the join procedure by replicating a join request while jamming the original sender. It is thus able to look legitimate until the daily quota of the impersonating ED depletes.
2. Related Work
3. Various Aspects of LoRaWAN
3.1. Network Architecture
3.2. Communication
- Semtech UDP: This forwarder was the first packet forwarder and still comes pre-compiled with most LoRa gateways. It uses the Semtech UDP protocol over TCP/UDP. Although over time, this protocol has acquired some flaws, it is still an easy way to test new gateways.
- MQTT: Is a lossless, bidirectional protocol designed for high-latency, low-bandwidth connections [21]. MQTT is a publish–subscribe protocol where clients subscribe to a set of topics for reading and writing. This makes the clients extremely lightweight and suitable for IoT connections, while the broker act as a gateway that handles all the transmissions to and from the servers of the relevant topics.
3.3. Message Format
- Uplink Message: Uses the LoRa radio packet explicit mode, which consists of a physical header (PHDR) and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) header (PHDR_CRC). Another CRC is required to protect the integrity of the payload; these three are together inserted by the radio transceiver in the following way:
Uplink PHY: | Preamble | PHDR | PHDR_CRC | PHYPayload | CRC |
- Downlink Message: Works very similar and also uses the LoRa radio packet explicit mode with a PHDR and a PHDR_CRC.
Downlink PHY: | Preamble | PHDR | PHDR_CRC | PHYPayload |
PHYPayload: | MHDR | MACPayload | MIC |
MACPayload: | FHDR | FPort | FRMPayload |
3.4. Security
- Mutual Authentication: This is established between the end device and the LoRaWAN network during the join procedure, which ensures that both the device and the network are genuine and authentic.
- Integrity Protection: LoRaWAN MAC and application messaging are origin authenticated, integrity protected, replay protected, and encrypted. Together with the mutual authentication, it will protect the network by preventing the alteration of messages and ensure that the sender is legitimate.
- Confidentiality: For the application level, LoRaWAN employs end-to-end encryption for application packages that are transferred between an end device and application server.
- Network Session Key: (NwkSKey) is used as identification between the end-device and the network server.
- Application Session Key: (AppSKey) is for payload encryption and decryption and is shared end-to-end on the application level.
- Activation By Personalization (ABP), this activation method already has the NwkSkey and AppSKey set up in advance and can thus access the network without requiring a join request.
- Over-The-Air Activation (OTAA), this method starts with a “Join Request” containing the device ID (DevEUI), the application server ID (AppEUI), and a random value called DevNonce [6]. It is signed with a message integrity code (MIC) using the AppKey. If the MIC is validated, then the node is authenticated, and the network sends back a “Join Accept” message, which is encrypted with the AppKey, and it includes the AppNonce and NetID parameters.
4. Design and Implementation
- VIN (Voltage Input): The power supply can handle 3.3 to 6 VDC with a peak current of 150 mA, making sure to supply that amount of current for everything to work.
- GND (Ground): The ground is for logic and power.
- EN (Enable): The enable pin of the regulator, which is pulled high to VIN by default; pulling it low to GND will cut off the power to the radio.
- G0 (GPIO 0/IRQ): Is used for interrupt request notification from the radio to the microcontroller.
- SCK (SPI Clock): Is an input to the chip.
- MISO (Master In Slave Out/Microcontroller In Serial Out): Is for the data sent from the radio transceiver to the microcontroller/processor.
- MOSI (Master Out Slave In/Microcontroller Out Serial In): Is for the data sent from the micocontroller/processor to the radio transceiver.
- CS (Chip Select): Is an input to the chip. Drop it low to start an SPI transaction.
- RST (Reset): The reset pin is pulled high by default, which is reset. Pull it low to turn on the radio.
4.1. Proposed Technique
Listing 1. Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for GW. | |
1 | Certificate Request |
2 | Data |
3 | Version 1 (0x0) |
4 | Subject : CN = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFF |
5 | Subject Public Key Info : |
6 | Public Key Algorithm : rsaEncryption |
7 | RSA Public - Key : (2048 bit ) |
8 | Modulus : |
9 | 00: af:e1 :3a:1a:d0 :7f:9c:c5:a9 :45:90:2 a:dc :88: |
10 | … |
11 | Exponent : 65537 (0 x10001 ) |
12 | Attributes : |
13 | Requested Extensions : |
14 | X509v3 Key Usage : critical Digital Signature , Key Encipherment |
15 | X509v3 Extended Key Usage : E- mail Protection ,TLS Web Client |
Authentication | |
16 | X509v3 Subject Key Identifier : |
17 | 67: FF :89:00:84: C7 :40: ED :54:33:05:74:75: DE:C1 :1E:4A :18:2 D:F4 |
18 | X509v3 Subject Alternative Name : |
19 | <EMPTY> |
20 | |
21 | Signature Algorithm : sha1WithRSAEncryption |
22 | 73: b4:c4:ed :93:9 e:f4 :9d:a7 :1f :90:40:71:07:5 d:3a:d9:f1: |
23 | … |
4.2. Attacker Model
4.3. Verification of the Proposal
5. Results
RSSI of the Test Area
6. Discussion
7. Conclusions and Future Work
Future Work
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
AS | Application Server |
AppSKey | Application Session Key |
ABP | Activation By Personalization |
CA | Certificate Authority |
CRC | Cyclic Redundancy Check |
CRL | Certificate Revocation List |
CSS | Chirp Spread Spectrum |
CSR | Certificate Signing Request |
CTR | Counter |
dBm | decibel-milliWatts |
ECQV | Elliptic Curve Qu-Vanstone |
EDHOC | Ehpemeral Diffie–Hellman Over COSE |
GW | Gateway |
HDR | Frame Header |
IoT | Internet of Things |
ISM | Industrial Scientific and Medical |
JS | Join Server |
LoRa | Long Range |
LoRaWAN | Long Range Wide Area Network |
MQTT | Message Queuing Telemetry Transport |
MITM | Man-in-the-Middle |
MTyope | Message Type |
MIC | Message Integrity Code |
M2M | Machine to Machine |
NwkSKey | Network Session Key |
NS | Network Server |
OTAA | Over-The-Air Activation |
PDR | Packet Delivery Ratio |
PKI | Public Key Infrastructure |
RA | Registration Authority |
RF | Radio Frequency |
RSSI | Received Signal Strength Indicator |
SPOF | Single Point of Failure |
TTP | Trusted Third Party |
VA | Validation Authority |
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Raspberry Pi 4 | RFM96W |
---|---|
1 (3V3 Power) | VIN |
9 (Ground) | GND |
29 (GPIO 5) | G0 |
23 (GPIO 11: SCLK) | SCK |
21 (GPIO 9: MISO) | MISO |
19 (GPIO 10: MOSI) | MOSI |
26 (GPIO 7:CE1) | CS |
22 (GPIO 25) | RST |
Signal Strength | Rating | Info |
---|---|---|
>−30 dBm | Amazing | Max signal strength, due to being right next |
to the client. Not reasonable in the real world. | ||
−50 dBm | Excellent | Almost perfect signal strength in the real world |
with ideal conditions. | ||
−60 dBm | Very Good | High latency, would most likely not feel any |
disturbance. | ||
−70 dBm | Good | Minimum signal strength for reliable packet |
delivery for menial tasks. | ||
−80 dBm | Low | Minimum signal strength for basic connectivity. |
Packet delivery is now unreliable. | ||
−90 dBm | Very Low | Terrible signal strength, with frequent package |
drops and connectivity issues. | ||
<−100 dBm | No Signal | Not much if anything is able to get through. |
Related Work | Authentication of End-Device with Server | Improvements on End-Device Comm | Improvements on Network Security | Authentication of GW with Server |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mårlind and Butun [4] | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Gresak and Voznak [9] | ✖ | ■ | ✔ | ✖ |
Fan et al. [14] | ✔ | ✔ | ■ | ✖ |
Ribeiro et al. [15] | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Danish et al. [16] | ✔ | ✔ | ■ | ✖ |
Sanchez et al. [17] | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Naoui et al. [27] | ✖ | ■ | ✔ | ✖ |
Proposed work | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
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Mohamed, A.; Wang, F.; Butun, I.; Qadir, J.; Lagerström, R.; Gastaldo, P.; Caviglia, D.D. Enhancing Cyber Security of LoRaWAN Gateways under Adversarial Attacks. Sensors 2022, 22, 3498. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093498
Mohamed A, Wang F, Butun I, Qadir J, Lagerström R, Gastaldo P, Caviglia DD. Enhancing Cyber Security of LoRaWAN Gateways under Adversarial Attacks. Sensors. 2022; 22(9):3498. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093498
Chicago/Turabian StyleMohamed, Ali, Franz Wang, Ismail Butun, Junaid Qadir, Robert Lagerström, Paolo Gastaldo, and Daniele D. Caviglia. 2022. "Enhancing Cyber Security of LoRaWAN Gateways under Adversarial Attacks" Sensors 22, no. 9: 3498. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093498
APA StyleMohamed, A., Wang, F., Butun, I., Qadir, J., Lagerström, R., Gastaldo, P., & Caviglia, D. D. (2022). Enhancing Cyber Security of LoRaWAN Gateways under Adversarial Attacks. Sensors, 22(9), 3498. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093498