A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Internal interface diversification as a security measure in sensor networks
Authors: Sampsa Rauti, Lauri Koivunen, Petteri Mäki, Shohreh Hosseinzadeh, Samuel Laurén, Johannes Holvitie, Ville Leppänen
Publisher: MDPI AG
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks
Journal name in source: Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks
Volume: 7
Issue: 1
Number of pages: 20
ISSN: 2224-2708
eISSN: 2224-2708
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan7010012
Web address : http://www.mdpi.com/2224-2708/7/1/12
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/31088550
More actuator and sensor devices are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) every day, and the network keeps growing, while software security of the devices is often incomplete. Sensor networks and the IoT in general currently cover a large number of devices with an identical internal interface structure. By diversifying the internal interfaces, the interfaces on each node of the network are made unique, and it is possible to break the software monoculture of easily exploitable identical systems. This paper proposes internal interface diversification as a security measure for sensor networks. We conduct a study on diversifiable internal interfaces in 20 IoT operating systems. We also present two proof-of-concept implementations and perform experiments to gauge the feasibility in the IoT environment. Internal interface diversification has practical limitations, and not all IoT operating systems have that many diversifiable interfaces. However, because of low resource requirements, compatibility with other security measures and wide applicability to several interfaces, we believe internal interface diversification is a promising and effective approach for securing nodes in sensor networks.
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