How to implement birthday attack in ns3

To implement the birthday attack in ns3, in cryptography the birthday attack usually used to identify the collision in hash function. To simulating the cryptographic birthday attack in ns3 is not applicable but ns3 is usually used for simulating the network protocols and their characteristics rather than cryptographic analysis.

Furthermore, we can simulate the situation like where the attacker nodes stab to make collision or conflicts in a network scenario like IP or MAC address spoofing. Now we provide how to simulate the attack that the attacker tries to make a collision in MAC address inside a network that is same concept as birthday attack in cryptography.

We also provide and support how birthday attacks performs in other simulation tool.

Simulating MAC Address Collision Attack in ns3

Steps:

1. Set Up ns3 Environment:
   • Make sure ns3 is installed
2. Create a New ns3 Script:
   • Create a new script file in the scratch directory of ns3, e.g., mac_collision_attack.cc.
3. Include Necessary Headers:
   • Include the necessary ns3 headers in your script.
4. Define Network Topology:
   • Set up a network topology with multiple legitimate nodes and an attacker node.
5. Implement MAC Address Collision Logic:
   • To send packets with spoofed MAC addresses to create collisions by use the attacker node.
6. Enable Packet Capture:
   • Enable pcap tracing to capture packets for analysis with Wireshark.
7. Run the Simulation:
   • Set the simulation time and run the simulation using Simulator::Run() and Simulator::Destroy().

Example Code:

Here we provide the sample snippet to understand how it implements in ns3:

#include “ns3/core-module.h”

#include “ns3/network-module.h”

#include “ns3/internet-module.h”

#include “ns3/point-to-point-module.h”

#include “ns3/applications-module.h”

#include “ns3/ipv4-l3-protocol.h”

#include “ns3/ethernet-header.h”

using namespace ns3;

NS_LOG_COMPONENT_DEFINE (“MacCollisionAttack”);

void SendSpoofedPackets (Ptr<Node> attackerNode, Ipv4Address victimAddress, Mac48Address spoofedMac, uint16_t port)

{

Ptr<Socket> socket = Socket::CreateSocket (attackerNode, TypeId::LookupByName (“ns3::UdpSocketFactory”));

InetSocketAddress remote = InetSocketAddress (victimAddress, port);

socket->Connect (remote);

Ptr<Packet> packet = Create<Packet> (1024); // Create a packet of 1024 bytes

EthernetHeader ethHeader;

ethHeader.SetSource (spoofedMac);

ethHeader.SetDestination (Mac48Address::GetBroadcast ());

ethHeader.SetLengthType (packet->GetSize ());

packet->AddHeader (ethHeader);

socket->Send (packet);

}

int main (int argc, char *argv[])

{

uint32_t nNodes = 5; // Number of legitimate nodes

uint16_t port = 9; // Target port for the attack

uint32_t packetSize = 1024; // Size of the packet

uint32_t numPackets = 1000; // Number of packets to send

Time interval = Seconds (0.01); // Interval between packets

CommandLine cmd;

cmd.AddValue (“nNodes”, “Number of legitimate nodes”, nNodes);

cmd.AddValue (“port”, “Target port for the attack”, port);

cmd.AddValue (“packetSize”, “Size of the packets”, packetSize);

cmd.AddValue (“numPackets”, “Number of packets”, numPackets);

cmd.AddValue (“interval”, “Interval between packets”, interval);

cmd.Parse (argc, argv);

NodeContainer nodes;

nodes.Create (nNodes + 1); // +1 for the attacker node

Ptr<Node> attacker = nodes.Get (nNodes);

PointToPointHelper pointToPoint;

pointToPoint.SetDeviceAttribute (“DataRate”, StringValue (“5Mbps”));

pointToPoint.SetChannelAttribute (“Delay”, StringValue (“2ms”));

NetDeviceContainer devices;

for (uint32_t i = 0; i < nodes.GetN () – 1; ++i)

{

devices.Add (pointToPoint.Install (nodes.Get (i), nodes.Get (i + 1)));

}

InternetStackHelper stack;

stack.Install (nodes);

Ipv4AddressHelper address;

address.SetBase (“10.1.1.0”, “255.255.255.0”);

Ipv4InterfaceContainer interfaces = address.Assign (devices);

// Install applications on legitimate nodes

UdpEchoServerHelper echoServer (port);

ApplicationContainer serverApps = echoServer.Install (nodes.Get (nNodes – 1));

serverApps.Start (Seconds (1.0));

serverApps.Stop (Seconds (10.0));

UdpEchoClientHelper echoClient (interfaces.GetAddress (nNodes – 1), port);

echoClient.SetAttribute (“MaxPackets”, UintegerValue (100));

echoClient.SetAttribute (“Interval”, TimeValue (Seconds (0.1)));

echoClient.SetAttribute (“PacketSize”, UintegerValue (packetSize));

ApplicationContainer clientApps = echoClient.Install (nodes.Get (0));

clientApps.Start (Seconds (2.0));

clientApps.Stop (Seconds (10.0));

// Schedule MAC address collision attack

for (uint32_t i = 0; i < numPackets; ++i)

{

Simulator::Schedule (Seconds (3.0 + i * interval.GetSeconds ()), &SendSpoofedPackets, attacker, interfaces.GetAddress (nNodes – 1), Mac48Address::Allocate (), port);

}

// Enable packet capture

pointToPoint.EnablePcapAll (“mac_collision_attack”);

Simulator::Run ();

Simulator::Destroy ();

return 0;

}

Explanation:

The given below are the detailed explanation to the process

1. Nodes and Links:
   • Created nodes for legitimate communication and one attacker node.
   • Configured point-to-point links between the nodes.
2. Applications:
   • Installed a UDP echo server on one of the legitimate nodes.
   • Installed a UDP echo client on another legitimate node to generate traffic.
3. MAC Collision Attack Logic:
   • Implemented a SendSpoofedPackets function to create and send packets with spoofed MAC addresses from the attacker node.
   • Scheduled the MAC address collision attack to start at a specific time in the simulation.
4. Packet Capture:
   • Enabled pcap tracing on all nodes to capture the traffic for analysis with Wireshark.
5. Running the Simulation:
   • The simulation runs with the attacker node sending packets with spoofed MAC addresses to create collisions, and the traffic is captured in pcap files.

At last, we had seen how birthday attacks integrate and identify the collision in MAC address inside the network. All kinds of birthday attacks in ns3tool guidance and programming are aided by us.