Mobile, Embedded, & Wireless Security

Understanding Next-Generation Jamming Attacks


Wireless communications are subject to various types of noise and interference, and several decades of research has produced reasonably effective approaches to communicate in a variety of settings. However, most approaches that address intentional interference, or jamming, consider only simplified attack models. This project focuses on advancing the state of the art in jamming attack modeling, given recent developments in software-defined radio technology. In addition, adversaries that are aware of higher-layer network functionality can leverage any available information to improve the impact or reduce the resource requirement for attack success. For example, jammers can synchronize their attacks with MAC protocol steps, focus attacks in specific geographic locations, or target packets from specific applications. Moreover, these same offensive techniques can be used to defend against other threats.

Jamming Attack

Related Publications

  • Bruce DeBruhl and Patrick Tague, "How to Jam Without Getting Caught: Analysis and Empirical Study of Stealthy Periodic Jamming", IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON), Jun 2013. [pdf,bib]

  • Yu Seung Kim, Bruce DeBruhl, and Patrick Tague, "Stochastic Optimization of Flow-Jamming Attacks in Multichannel Wireless Networks", IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Jun 2013. [pdf,bib]

  • Bruce DeBruhl, Yu Seung Kim, Zachary Weinberg, and Patrick Tague, "STIR-ing the Wireless Medium with Self-Tuned, Inference-Based, Real-Time Jamming", 9th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), Oct 2012. [pdf,bib]

  • Yu Seung Kim, Patrick Tague, Heejo Lee, and Hyogon Kim, "Carving Secure Wi-Fi Zones with Defensive Jamming", 7th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer, and Communications Security (AsiaCCS), May 2012. [pdf,bib]

  • Yu Seung Kim, Patrick Tague, Heejo Lee, and Hyogon Kim, "Carving Secure Wi-Fi Zones with Defensive Jamming (Extended Version)", Carnegie Mellon University, Wireless Network and System Security Group, Technical Report TR-DefJam, 2012. [pdf,bib]

  • Patrick Tague, "Improving Anti-Jamming Capability and Increasing Jamming Impact with Mobility Control", 6th IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Sensor Networks Security (WSNS), Nov 2010. [pdf,bib]

  • Patrick Tague, David Slater, Guevara Noubir, and Radha Poovendran, "Linear Programming Models for Jamming Attacks on Network Traffic Flows", 6th Intl. Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc, and Wireless Networks (WiOpt), Apr 2008. [pdf,bib]


Acknowledgements

This research is partially supported by CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University under grant DAAD19-02-1-0389 from the Army Research Office, by the National Science Foundation under grant CNS-1149582, and by an NDSEG fellowship. The views and conclusions contained in print and online are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either express or implied, of ARO, CMU, NSF, or the U.S. Government or any of its agencies.