Syncim: A new impersonation attack against chip synchronization in WSN

Abstract

This study proposes, a new impersonation attack, called Syncim, against chip synchronization in wireless sensor network. In this attack, the adversary tries to impersonate the pilot signal. Thus, the victim node would be synchronized with the adversary instead of the legitimate transmitter. When this attack is successfully performed, the adversary can hijack the connection and perform a man in the middle attack. The effects of this attack are mathematically analyzed and the minimum signal power required by the adversary to perform Syncim is derived. It has been shown that in order to perform this attack, the delay between the adversity signal and the legitimate transmitter should be less than half a chip duration.