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Analysis on Mobile WiMAX Security
Perumalraja Rengaraju, Chung-Horng Lung, Yi Qu
Department of Systems and Computer Engineering
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
{rpraja, chlung, quyi }@sce.carleton.ca
Anand Srinivasan
EION Inc.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
anand@eion.com
Abstract— Security support is mandatory for any communication
networks. For wireless systems, security support is even more
important to protect the users as well as the network. Since
wireless medium is available to all, the attackers can easily access
the network and the network becomes more vulnerable for the
user and the network service provider. In the existing research,
there is lack of integrated presentation of solutions to all the
security issues of mobile WiMAX network, which is important
for researchers and practitioners. This paper discusses all the
security issues in both point-to-multipoint and mesh network and
discusses their solutions. In addition, a new recommendation is
also proposed for one of the security issues.
Keywords – WiMAX; Security
I. INTRODUCTION
WiMAX is the emerging broadband wireless technologies
based on IEEE 802.16 standards [1]. The security sublayer of
the IEEE 802.16d [1] standard defines the security mechanisms
for fixed and IEEE 802.16e [2] standard defines the security
mechanisms for mobile network. The security sublayer
supports are to: (i) authenticate the user when the user enters in
to the network, (ii) authorize the user, if the user is provisioned
by the network service provider, and then (iii) provide the
necessary encryption support for the key transfer and data
traffic.
The previous IEEE 802.16d standard security architecture
is based on PKMv1 (Privacy Key Management) protocol but it
has many security issues. Most of these issues are resolved by
the later version of PKMv2 protocol in IEEE 802.16e standard
which provides a flexible solution that supports device and user
authentication between a mobile station (MS) and the home
connectivity service network (CSN). Even though both of these
standards brief the medium access control (MAC) and physical
(PHY) layer functionality, they mainly concentrate on point-to-
multipoint (PMP) networks. In the concern of security, mesh
networks are more vulnerable than the PMP network, but the
standards have failed to concentrate on the mesh mode.
Various methods have been proposed to address the
security flaws revealed in the standards. However, there is lack
of an integrated view of all solutions and comparison of those
solutions. The integrated presentation is important to
researchers and practitioner to understand the problem domain
effectively and probably propose more secure mechanisms in
the future. The objective of this paper is to conduct a
comprehensive survey on existing security mechanisms and
compare them. In addition, a recommendation for one security
issue is also provided.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The network
architecture and its security supports are discussed in the next
section. Section III discusses the PMP and mesh network
security issues and its counter measures from the existing
research efforts. Section IV is the conclusion.
II. NETWORK ARCHITECTURE AND SECURITY SUPPORTS
A. Point-to-Multipoint Network
The goal of the IEEE 802.16e Security Sublayer is to
provide the mutual authentication for access control and
confidentiality of the data link layer [2]. It has two component
protocols: (i) an encapsulation protocol for data encryption
and authentication algorithms, (ii) a key management protocol
(PKM) providing the secure distribution of keying data from
the BS to the MS [2]. The following describes the main
functionalities in more detail.
Authentication in IEEE 802.16e: Authentication addresses
establishing the genuine identity of the device or user
wishing to join a wireless network [32]. In IEEE 802.16e
authentication is achieved by using the public key interchange
protocol, which ensures not only authentication but also the
establishment of encryption keys. The PKM protocol allows
three types of authentication [3]:
i. RSA based authentication - X.509 digital certificates
together with RSA encryption
ii. Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) based
authentication
iii. RSA based authentication followed by EAP
authentication
In the RSA based authentication, a BS authenticates the
MS by virtue of its unique X.509 digital certificate which has
been issued by the MS manufacturer. The X.509 certificate
contains the MS’s Public Key (PK) and its MAC address.
When requesting an AK, the MS sends its digital certificate to
the BS. The BS validates the certificate and then uses the
verified PK to encrypt an AK which is then sent back to the
MS. All the MSs that use RSA authentication have factory
installed private/public key pairs together with factory
installed X.509 certificates.
In the case of EAP based authentication [3], the MS is
authenticated either through a unique operator issued
credential, such as a SIM or though an X.509 certificate.
WiMAX forum suggests any of the three following methods
and the choice is depends on operator’s implementation:
i. EAP-AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement) for
SIM based authentication,
TIC-STH 2009
978-1-4244-3878-5/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 439
ii. EAP-TLS (Transport Layer Security) for X.509 based
authentication
iii. EAP-TTLS (Tunneled TLS) for MS-CHAPv2
(Microsoft-Challenge Handshake Authentication
Protocol)
The security architecture of the EAP-TLS is defined in
RFC 5216 [33] and it is robust as long as the user understands
potential warnings about false credentials.
Fig.1 shows the layering of PKMv2 user Authentication
protocols. PKMv2 transfers EAP over the IEEE 802.16 air
interface between MS and BS in Access Service Network
(ASN). Depending on the Authenticator location in the ASN, a
BS may forward EAP messages over Authentication Relay
protocol to Authenticator. The AAA client on the
Authenticator encapsulates the EAP in AAA protocol packets
and forwards them via one or more AAA proxies to the AAA
Server in the CSN of the home Network Service Provider
(NSP), which holds the subscription with the Supplicant.
Fig. 1: PKMv2 User Authentication Protocols [3]
User Authorization [3, 10]: This is a request for an AK as
well as for an SA identity (SAID) to authorize the user
credentials. The Authorization Request includes MS’s X.509
certificate, encryption algorithms and cryptographic ID. In
response, the BS carries out the necessary validation (by
interacting with an AAA server in the network) and sends
back an Authorization reply which contains the AK encrypted
with the MS’s public key, a lifetime key and an SAID. After
the initial authorization from AAA, the BS reauthorizes the
MS periodically.
Traffic Encryption [1]: Application data are encrypted by
Traffic Encryption Key (TEK), which is generated as a
random number in the BS using the TEK encryption
algorithm. The Key Encryption Key (KEK) is used for
encrypting the TEK before the key transfer from BS. The
KEK is 128 bits long, which is derived directly from the 160
bits long AK.
Privacy and key management [15]: A PKM protocol
instance establishes a data Security Association (SA) between
BS and MS. A SA is defined as the set of security information
shared between a BS and one or more of the MSs connected to
that BS in order to support secure communications across the
WiMAX access network. Three types of SAs have been
defined - primary, static and dynamic [1]. Each MS establishes
a primary SA during the MS initialization phase. Static SAs
are provided within the BS. Dynamic SAs are created and
destroyed in real time in response to the creation and
termination of service flows. Each MS can have several
service flows on the go and can therefore have several
dynamic SAs. The Hashed Message Authentication Code
(HMAC) digests are used to encrypt the message transfer. By
computing the value HMAC, MS and BS detect forgeries.
Network Entry Procedure [3]: Fig.2 shows the detailed
Network entry procedure suggested by the NWG. Upon
successful completion of ranging, the MS SHALL send the
SBC_Req message and BS in ASN SHALL respond to the MS
by sending the SBC_Rsp, see step (1) in Fig. 2. During this
SBC negotiation, the PKM version, PKMv2 security
capabilities and authorization policy including requirements
and support for Device Authentication are negotiated. This
causes the Authenticator to begin the EAP sequence.
EAP Exchange: The authenticator in ASN sends an EAP-
Identity request to the MS and the MS will respond to the
request by sending PKM-REQ (PKMv2 EAP-Transfer)
message, as depicted in step (2).
Fig. 2: PKMv2 Procedure during Initial Network Entry [3]
Master Session Keys (MSK and EMSK) establishment: The
Home AAA Server generates the MSK and EMSK, and then
transfers the generated MSK to the Authenticator in the ASN.
The EMSK is retained at the Home AAA Server to generate
the mobility keys. From the MSK, both the MS and the
Authenticator generate a Pairwise Master Key (PMK) as per
IEEE 802.16e specifications, as shown in step (3).
Authentication Key (AK) generation: The Authenticator
and the MS generate the AK from the PMK based on the
algorithm specified in the IEEE 802.16e, as shown in step (4).
AK Transfer: The Key Distributor entity in the
Authenticator delivers the AK and its context to the Key
Receiver entity in the Serving BS, as depicted in step (5).
SA-TEK exchange: The MS and the BS perform PKMv2
in three-way handshake procedure as per IEEE 802.16e
specification, as shown in step (6).
TEK message transfer, Registration and service flow
creations are the subsequent process based on IEEE 802.16e
standard, as shown in steps (7), (8) and (9).
B. Mesh Network
WiMAX mesh mode network has mesh base stations. New
subscriber stations are called as client nodes (CNs) and the
440
active subscriber stations are called sponsor nodes (SNs), since
SNs have the capability to sponsor new CNs. The nodes which
are one hop away are called neighbor nodes and more than one
hop distance nodes are called extended neighbor nodes [1].
The CNs will continuously scan every possible frequency
channel and build the physical neighbor list. From the
established neighbor list, the new node selects a sponsor node
having the best signal quality. Then, the new node
synchronizes its time with the chosen sponsor node and sends
out a Network Entry Request message (MSH-NENT message
with Type=0x02) [1]. The joining node authenticates itself to
the sponsor node using an Operator Authentication Value [5],
which is an authenticated hash of the MAC address and the
node serial number using the shared secret authorization key
(AK) as depicted below.
HAMC (MAC address|Node Serial Number|AK)
Upon receiving this entry request message, the sponsor
node will evaluate the request and decide to open or reject a
sponsor channel for the new node. If the sponsor node finds an
invalid operator authentication value or excess propagation
delay or not possible to support additional new nodes, it will
reject the entry request and respond in MSH-NCFG message
with Type=0x03. If the sponsor node accepts the request, it
will send out MSH-NCFG message with Type=0x02. Then,
the new node acknowledges the acceptance by replying MSH-
NENT message with Type=0x01 [1].
Authorization and TEK exchange [8]: The new node
performs the authorization via the sponsor node. First it sends
the privacy key management request (PKM-REQ) message
with authentication information. Subsequently, the new node
sends PKM-REQ message with authorization request PKM-
REQ: Auth Request to the sponsor node with the fields
indicating X.509 certificate and supporting cryptographic
algorithms. The sponsor node will tunnel the received
messages over UDP/IP to the authentication node. In response
to the authorization request, the Authentication Node validates
the requesting new node’s identity, determines the encryption
algorithms and authentication key, and sends back the PKM
Response message with authorization reply (PKM-RSP) to the
sponsor node. Then, the sponsor node forwards the message [8]
to the new node as shown in Fig.3.
Fig. 3: Client Node Authorization
The first exchange is the Key Request message which
contains the candidate node's X.509 certificate and SAID. The
Key Request message is protected from modification with a
HMAC digest. The Key Reply message includes the current
AK sequence number, SAID, and Traffic Encryption key
parameters-encrypted with the candidate node's public key. The
TEK parameters include the old and new TEKs, their
remaining lifetime and a 2-bit sequence number. The key reply
message also contains an HMAC digest. Nodes use the
Operator Shared Secret to calculate the HMAC digest for key
request and key reply.
Neighbor Authentication [8]: Once the node has been
successfully authorized, it activates a TEK exchange for each
SAID with its neighbors. The messages are shown in Fig.4.
Fig. 4: Neighbor Node Authentication
Registration and connectivity: Now the joining node can
register and obtain an IP address and start forming links to
other nodes in the mesh with the same AK value.
III. SECURITY ISSUES AND COUNTER MEASURE - ANALYSIS
Security threats may occur in both the PHY and the MAC
layers [22]. The attacker attacks with Radio Frequency (RF)
channel for PHY layer threats. For MAC layer threats, the
attackers spoof, modify and reply the MAC layer messages. In
this paper, we concentrate only on MAC layer issues. The
following sub-sections discuss the PHY layer security threats
and MAC layer security threats along with counter measures.
A. PHY layer security issues[6], [22]and [24]:
Scrambling and jamming are the two possible threats in
PHY layer. For scrambling, the attackers will scramble the
uplink slots of other MS’s by their own data and make it
unreadable for BS. Jamming at the physical layer is a kind of
denial-of-service (DoS) attack that uses intentionally
interfering radio communication by introducing the noise to
disrupt the reception of messages in both uplink and downlink.
B. MAC layer security issues in PMP Network
The causes of MAC layer security issues are due to certain
un-encrypted MAC management messages. The major security
issues in PMP network are,
1. DoS/Reply attacks during MS Initial network entry
2. Latency during handover and unsecured pre-
authentication
3. Downgrade attack
4. Cryptographic algorithm computational efficiency
5. Bandwidth spoofing
Each security issue and its counter measures are discussed
below:
1. DoS/Reply attacks during MS Initial network entry:
When the MS enter into the network, it scans the downlink
channel and synchronizes with it. In the downlink, BS
announces the range of initial ranging code for MS. The MS
selects any one of the ranging code and sends it to BS for initial
ranging. The BS responds to the successful reception of
ranging code by Ranging Response (RNG-RSP) message. The
RNG-RSP message is used to nullify the offsets of frequency,
time and power used by the MS. Then the MS goes for SBC-
REQ and other procedures as shown in Fig.2. The message
flows before SA-TEK are un-encrypted nature. So the attacker
441
can decode the MAC messages, modify and re-send it to BS or
MS. The security issues during initial network entry are: (i)
RNG-RSP vulnerability (ii) Auth-Request and Invalid
vulnerability and (iii) Rogue BS.
In RNG-RSP vulnerability, the attacker modifies the RNG-
RSP message and sets the status as failed, then re-sends it to
MS. So the MS goes for initial ranging again. If the attacker
continuously sets the RNG-RSP status as failed, the MS can
not access the network. This leads to the DoS attack.
This RNG-RSP vulnerability is solved by Diffie-Hellman
(D-H) key agreement [7]. Fig.5 shows the secured initial
ranging and network entry procedure using D-H key
agreement. In this MS generates the global prime numbers p, q
and the secret key. Then it sends the prime numbers p and q to
BS along with ranging code. Now the BS can generate the
shared secret key from the global prime numbers p and q as per
D-H key algorithm. Using the shared secret key the BS
encrypts the RNG-RSP message. So the attacker can not
modify the status. This secured initial network-entry process
(SINP) [10] also solves Auth-Request vulnerability.
Fig. 5: Initial Network entry with D-H Key Agreement [7]
For Auth-Request and Invalid vulnerability, the attacker
captures the Auth-Request message and re-sends it to BS
continuously. So the BS would be confused with the
continuous request and sets the Auth-Response as failure.
Some time the attacker may captures Auth-Response message
from BS and re-sends to MS after time out period.
This issue can be solved by either introducing nonce [15] or
time stamps [20]. By adding nonce or time stamp, MS and BS
identifies if the authorization message is proper. So the attacker
can not modify the messages. When comparing nonce and time
stamp, time stamp is more secure and avoids the replay attack.
If the attacker captures the authorization response message and
resends it after the time of expiry, the MS can identify with the
time stamp value. Fig.6 shows the authorization
request/response messages with time stamps, where, TS and TB
denote the time stamps of MS and BS in the authorization
request/response messages, respectively.
Fig. 6: Authorization req/resp with time stamps
In [25] the authors suggested the Wireless Public Key
Infrastructure (WPKI) to solve the authentication
vulnerability. The same issue is solved by visual cryptography
in [14]. Since it requires the trusted third party (TTP) server
for the implementation, it may not be suitable when
considering the end to end network architecture.
In rogue BS attack, the SS cannot verify that any
authorization protocol messages it receives were generated by
an authorized BS. So any rogue BS can create a response. To
solve this issue, the SS has to authenticate the BS [15]. The
PKMv2 in standard 802.16e solves it by mutual
authentication.
Solution: From the above discussion, the D-H key
agreement [7] is more suitable for initial network entry issues.
It solves the both RNG-RSP and Auth-Response vulnerability.
2. Latency during handover and unsecured pre-
authentication: When handover occurs, the MS is re-
authenticated and authorized by the target BS. The re-
authentication and key exchange procedure increase the
handover time, which affects the delay sensitive applications.
In handover response message, BS informs the MS whether
MS needs to do re-authentication with the target BS or not. If
the MS is pre-authenticated by target BS before handover,
then there is no need of device re-authentication but user
authorization is still necessary.
For the above issue, the authors [12] proposed two schemes
to avoid the device re-authentication. The first scheme adopts
the standard EAP but instead of standard EAP method used in
handover authentication, an efficient shared key-based EAP
method is used using EMSK. Let MSKi and EMSKi be the
master and extended master session keys in the ith
authentication phase, then MS and AAA will generate the
MSKi+1 and EMSKi+1 from the existing MSKi and EMSKi keys
before handover takes place. So the device authentication and
key (MSK, EMSK) exchange is avoided. The second method
skips the standard EAP method and the device authentication is
done by SA-TEK three-way handshake in PKMv2 process.
Since this method avoids the standard procedures, it is not
suitable for implementation.
The handover latency can be reduced by simple pre-
authentication schemes [19]. But pre-authentication schemes
are inefficient and insecure [12].
Another approach for reducing the handover latency is
using PKI infrastructure [17] for mutual authentication between
target ASN and the MS before handover. Since the messages
are encrypted using the public key, security is assured.
Mobile IP (MIP) scheme [26] is the new approach to solve
the above issue. In this scheme, pre-negotiation with the target
BS is in layer 3 MIP tunneling protocol.
Solution: For the above issue, MIP scheme [26] is more
efficient than the other methods, since the messages are more
secured by tunneling protocol and it further reduces the latency
during IP connectivity phase. If the MS doesn’t have the MIP
support, shared key-based EAP is efficient.
3. Downgrade attack [32]: The first message of the
authorization process is an unsecured message from MS telling
BS what security capabilities it has. An attacker could,
therefore, send a spoofed message to BS containing weaker
capabilities in order to convince the BS and the attacked MS to
agree on an insecure encryption algorithm.
442
Solution: A possible solution for downgrade attack is that
the BS could ignore messages with security capabilities under a
certain limit [32].
4. Cryptographic algorithm computational efficiency: The
number of bits needed for encryption in RSA is more than
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) for a required encryption,
which increases the computation time.
Solution: ECC is the good substitute for RSA-based public
key cryptography [21, 25]. ECC can achieve the same level of
security as RSA with smaller key sizes. 160-bit ECC provides
comparable security to 1024-bit RSA and 224-bit ECC
provides comparable security to 2048-bit RSA. Another
advantage of ECC is that it offers faster computational
efficiency and well as memory, energy and bandwidth savings.
5. Bandwidth spoofing: In bandwidth spoofing, the attacker
grabs the available bandwidth, by sending the un-necessary
BW request message to BS [18].
Recommendation: To solve the bandwidth spoofing, we
recommend that the radio resource management in the BS
should check the local policy function (LPF) and then allocates
the bandwidth only if the MS has necessarily provisioned. This
new recommendation is based on QoS model suggested by the
WiMAX forum [3].
C. MAC layer security issues in Mesh Network
In WiMAX mesh architecture, the CN should maintain the
neighbor list after the initial network entry. While creating the
neighbor list, it will verify the neighbor validity by neighbor
authentication procedures [8]. So the possible threats in the
mesh network are,
1. Man-in-middle attack during Initial network entry
2. Man-in-middle attack during neighbor authentication
3. Encryption load issues
4. Bandwidth spoofing
1. Man-in-middle attack during Initial network entry
[5,8,9,18,21]: In mesh mode, there are more chances that
malicious node can act as the SN and spoof the new node
information during network entry and during time of neighbor
establishment. For authentication, the CN has to authenticate
with the sponsor node using operator shared secret (OSS) key
which is similar to AK in PMP mode. The OSS key is common
for all the nodes in the mesh network. This Sponsor Node
Impersonation leads to Man-in-the Middle/Reply Attack.
To prevent the SN impersonations, CN should verify the
sponsor node joining message. In [5], the authors proposed a
scheme which assigns a different secret authorization key for
each node. This key is used in the Mesh PKM Request and
Mesh PKM Response to authenticate the joining node to the
authorization server and vice versa. The authorization message
flow is shown in Fig. 7. The PKM request and response
messages are depicted below.
Mesh PKM Request
MACjoining | SERIALjoining | H{MACjoining|SERIALjoining|AKjoining }
Mesh PKM Response
MACbase | SERIALbase | H {MACbase|SERIALbase|AKjoining }
Fig. 7: Network entry and authentication of a new node [5]
The Man-in-the Middle attack during authorization is
solved by adding the time stamp [8] or nonce [21] similar to the
PMP issue. The authorization message flows along with time
stamp is shown in Fig.8. The last two messages of original
message sequences are added with time stamps and the third
message is used for mutual authentication.
Fig. 8: Authorization request/response with time stamp
Solution: From the above discussion, the centralized
authentication server scheme solves the SN impersonation [5]
during authentication and time-stamp solves the man-in-middle
attack during authorization.
2. Man-in-middle attack during neighbor authentication:
This is similar to initial network entry, man-in-middle attack.
During neighbor authentication, the attacker spoofs the security
information of CN.
Solution: The same time stamp technique is used for
authenticating the neighbor node. The message sequence with
time stamp [8] from CN to SN in (1) and SN to CN (2) as
depicted below
TC | Candidate-X.509 | SAID | HMAC (1)
TC | TN | AK_SeqNo | Neighbor-X.509 | SAID| PubKey
(OldTEK, NewTEK) | Lifetime | HMAC(2)
3. Encryption load issues: In mesh mode, the SN decrypts
each payload and then transfers the traffic to the BS after
encrypting the data with its own OSS key. This leads to
encryption load issue and data insecurity.
Solution: To solve the encryption load issue [5], the
encryption should be done between the subscriber and the BS
and not just to the next hop. So the SN simply forwards the
traffic, in its encrypted form, to and from the mesh BS. For this
purpose, the authors [5] introduced a new mesh sub-header
which contains the ids of the transmitting node, the sponsor
node, and the mesh BS node. This differs from the current
standard containing only the transmitting node id. The SN can
use these ids to route without having to decrypt the message.
4. Bandwidth spoofing: The issue and the recommendation
are similar to PMP network.
443
IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The IEEE 802.16e based WiMAX network provides better
security architecture, compared to 802.16d, and basically
secures the wireless transmission using different components
such as X.509 certificates, PKMv2, the Security Associations,
encryption methods and the Encapsulation Protocol. However,
it still lacks complete security solutions due to certain
unsecured MAC management messages and the mesh network
is not analyzed clearly. The existing individual research
considered the issues such as secured ranging, authentication,
and authorization during key exchange phase, handover and
neighbor authentication. In this work, all the existing research
efforts were analyzed based on the end to end network
architecture and suitable solutions have been suggested.
For PMP network, the integrated solution consists of D-H
key agreement for secured initial network entry, MIP scheme
to avoid the latency and pre-authentication issue during
handover, neglecting the SBC-Req if the security capabilities
are under certain limit and ECC algorithm to improve the
computational efficiency from the existing research. For mesh
network, the integrated solution consists of centralized
authentication server along with different OSS for secured
initial network entry, data forwarding to avoid the encryption
load issue and time stamp in authentication message for SN
and neighbor authentications from the existing research. The
new recommendation for bandwidth spoofing in both PMP and
mesh networks is the BS allocates the uplink bandwidth only if
the user is necessarily provisioned.
We are working further to find the solutions for Physical
layer security threats and the simulations for the discussed
counter measures to create the complete solution.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This project is funded by EION Wireless and Ontario
Centres of Excellence (OCE), Ottawa, Canada.
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for Handover Schemes in Mobile WiMAX Networks,” Proc. of Int’l
Conf. on Wireless Comm. and Networking, 2008, pp. 2531–2536.
[20] S.Xu, M.Matthews and C-T.Huang, “Security Issues in Privacy and Key
Management Protocols of IEEE 802.16,” Proc. of ACM 44th Annual
Southeast Regional Conf., 2006, pp. 113–118.
[21] Y.Zhou and Y.Fang, “Security of IEEE 802.16 in mesh mode,” Proc. of
IEEE Military Comm. Conf., 2006, pp. 1–6.
[22] D.Hu and Y.Wang; “Security Research on WiMAX with Neural
Cryptography,” Proc. of Int’l Conf. on Info. Security and Assurance,
2008, pp. 370–373.
[23] Y.Kim, H-K.Lim and S.Bahk; “Shared Authentication Information for
Preventing DDoS attacks in Mobile WiMAX Networks,” Proc. of 5th
IEEE Conf. on Consumer Comm. and Networking, 2008, pp. 765–769.
[24] M.Nasreldin, H.Asian, M.El-Hennawy, and A.El-Hennawy, “WiMAX
Security,” Proc. of 22nd
Int’l Conf. on AINAW, 2008, pp. 1335–1340.
[25] F.Liu and L.Lu, “A WPKI-based Security Mechanism for IEEE 802.16e,
IEEE Communications Society,” Proc. of Int’l Conference on Wireless
Comm., Networking and Mobile Computing, 2006, pp. 1–4.
[26] C-K.Chang and C-T.Huang, “Fast and Secure Mobility for IEEE
802.16e Broadband Wireless Networks,” Proc. of Int’l Conf. on Parallel
Processing, 2007, pp. 46–46.
[27] S.Xu and C-T.Huang, “Attacks on PKM Protocols of IEEE 802.16 and
its later versions,” Proc. of 3rd
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2006, pp. 185–189.
[28] L.Maccari, M.Paoli and R.Fantacci, “Security analysis of IEEE 802.16,”
Proc. of IEEE Int’l Conf. on Comm., 2007, pp. 1160–1165.
[29] A.Altaf, M.Y.Javed and A.Ahmed, “Security Enhancements for Privacy
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[30] T.Haibo, P.Liaojun and W.Yumin, “Key Management Protocol of the
IEEE 802.16e”, Wu han Univ. J. of Natural Sciences Vol.12 No.1, 2007.
[31] F.Yang, H.Zhou, L.Zhang and J.Feng, “An improved security scheme in
WMAN based on IEEE standard 802.16,” Proc. of Int’l Conf. on
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[32] Bart Sikkens, “Security issues and proposed solutions concerning”, 8th
Twente Student Conf. on IT, 2008.
[33] D. Simon, B. Aboba and R. Hurst,"The EAP-TLS Authentication
Protocol", RFC 5216, 2008.
444

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Analysis on Mobile WiMAX Security.pdf

  • 1. Analysis on Mobile WiMAX Security Perumalraja Rengaraju, Chung-Horng Lung, Yi Qu Department of Systems and Computer Engineering Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada {rpraja, chlung, quyi }@sce.carleton.ca Anand Srinivasan EION Inc. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada anand@eion.com Abstract— Security support is mandatory for any communication networks. For wireless systems, security support is even more important to protect the users as well as the network. Since wireless medium is available to all, the attackers can easily access the network and the network becomes more vulnerable for the user and the network service provider. In the existing research, there is lack of integrated presentation of solutions to all the security issues of mobile WiMAX network, which is important for researchers and practitioners. This paper discusses all the security issues in both point-to-multipoint and mesh network and discusses their solutions. In addition, a new recommendation is also proposed for one of the security issues. Keywords – WiMAX; Security I. INTRODUCTION WiMAX is the emerging broadband wireless technologies based on IEEE 802.16 standards [1]. The security sublayer of the IEEE 802.16d [1] standard defines the security mechanisms for fixed and IEEE 802.16e [2] standard defines the security mechanisms for mobile network. The security sublayer supports are to: (i) authenticate the user when the user enters in to the network, (ii) authorize the user, if the user is provisioned by the network service provider, and then (iii) provide the necessary encryption support for the key transfer and data traffic. The previous IEEE 802.16d standard security architecture is based on PKMv1 (Privacy Key Management) protocol but it has many security issues. Most of these issues are resolved by the later version of PKMv2 protocol in IEEE 802.16e standard which provides a flexible solution that supports device and user authentication between a mobile station (MS) and the home connectivity service network (CSN). Even though both of these standards brief the medium access control (MAC) and physical (PHY) layer functionality, they mainly concentrate on point-to- multipoint (PMP) networks. In the concern of security, mesh networks are more vulnerable than the PMP network, but the standards have failed to concentrate on the mesh mode. Various methods have been proposed to address the security flaws revealed in the standards. However, there is lack of an integrated view of all solutions and comparison of those solutions. The integrated presentation is important to researchers and practitioner to understand the problem domain effectively and probably propose more secure mechanisms in the future. The objective of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive survey on existing security mechanisms and compare them. In addition, a recommendation for one security issue is also provided. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The network architecture and its security supports are discussed in the next section. Section III discusses the PMP and mesh network security issues and its counter measures from the existing research efforts. Section IV is the conclusion. II. NETWORK ARCHITECTURE AND SECURITY SUPPORTS A. Point-to-Multipoint Network The goal of the IEEE 802.16e Security Sublayer is to provide the mutual authentication for access control and confidentiality of the data link layer [2]. It has two component protocols: (i) an encapsulation protocol for data encryption and authentication algorithms, (ii) a key management protocol (PKM) providing the secure distribution of keying data from the BS to the MS [2]. The following describes the main functionalities in more detail. Authentication in IEEE 802.16e: Authentication addresses establishing the genuine identity of the device or user wishing to join a wireless network [32]. In IEEE 802.16e authentication is achieved by using the public key interchange protocol, which ensures not only authentication but also the establishment of encryption keys. The PKM protocol allows three types of authentication [3]: i. RSA based authentication - X.509 digital certificates together with RSA encryption ii. Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) based authentication iii. RSA based authentication followed by EAP authentication In the RSA based authentication, a BS authenticates the MS by virtue of its unique X.509 digital certificate which has been issued by the MS manufacturer. The X.509 certificate contains the MS’s Public Key (PK) and its MAC address. When requesting an AK, the MS sends its digital certificate to the BS. The BS validates the certificate and then uses the verified PK to encrypt an AK which is then sent back to the MS. All the MSs that use RSA authentication have factory installed private/public key pairs together with factory installed X.509 certificates. In the case of EAP based authentication [3], the MS is authenticated either through a unique operator issued credential, such as a SIM or though an X.509 certificate. WiMAX forum suggests any of the three following methods and the choice is depends on operator’s implementation: i. EAP-AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement) for SIM based authentication, TIC-STH 2009 978-1-4244-3878-5/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 439
  • 2. ii. EAP-TLS (Transport Layer Security) for X.509 based authentication iii. EAP-TTLS (Tunneled TLS) for MS-CHAPv2 (Microsoft-Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) The security architecture of the EAP-TLS is defined in RFC 5216 [33] and it is robust as long as the user understands potential warnings about false credentials. Fig.1 shows the layering of PKMv2 user Authentication protocols. PKMv2 transfers EAP over the IEEE 802.16 air interface between MS and BS in Access Service Network (ASN). Depending on the Authenticator location in the ASN, a BS may forward EAP messages over Authentication Relay protocol to Authenticator. The AAA client on the Authenticator encapsulates the EAP in AAA protocol packets and forwards them via one or more AAA proxies to the AAA Server in the CSN of the home Network Service Provider (NSP), which holds the subscription with the Supplicant. Fig. 1: PKMv2 User Authentication Protocols [3] User Authorization [3, 10]: This is a request for an AK as well as for an SA identity (SAID) to authorize the user credentials. The Authorization Request includes MS’s X.509 certificate, encryption algorithms and cryptographic ID. In response, the BS carries out the necessary validation (by interacting with an AAA server in the network) and sends back an Authorization reply which contains the AK encrypted with the MS’s public key, a lifetime key and an SAID. After the initial authorization from AAA, the BS reauthorizes the MS periodically. Traffic Encryption [1]: Application data are encrypted by Traffic Encryption Key (TEK), which is generated as a random number in the BS using the TEK encryption algorithm. The Key Encryption Key (KEK) is used for encrypting the TEK before the key transfer from BS. The KEK is 128 bits long, which is derived directly from the 160 bits long AK. Privacy and key management [15]: A PKM protocol instance establishes a data Security Association (SA) between BS and MS. A SA is defined as the set of security information shared between a BS and one or more of the MSs connected to that BS in order to support secure communications across the WiMAX access network. Three types of SAs have been defined - primary, static and dynamic [1]. Each MS establishes a primary SA during the MS initialization phase. Static SAs are provided within the BS. Dynamic SAs are created and destroyed in real time in response to the creation and termination of service flows. Each MS can have several service flows on the go and can therefore have several dynamic SAs. The Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC) digests are used to encrypt the message transfer. By computing the value HMAC, MS and BS detect forgeries. Network Entry Procedure [3]: Fig.2 shows the detailed Network entry procedure suggested by the NWG. Upon successful completion of ranging, the MS SHALL send the SBC_Req message and BS in ASN SHALL respond to the MS by sending the SBC_Rsp, see step (1) in Fig. 2. During this SBC negotiation, the PKM version, PKMv2 security capabilities and authorization policy including requirements and support for Device Authentication are negotiated. This causes the Authenticator to begin the EAP sequence. EAP Exchange: The authenticator in ASN sends an EAP- Identity request to the MS and the MS will respond to the request by sending PKM-REQ (PKMv2 EAP-Transfer) message, as depicted in step (2). Fig. 2: PKMv2 Procedure during Initial Network Entry [3] Master Session Keys (MSK and EMSK) establishment: The Home AAA Server generates the MSK and EMSK, and then transfers the generated MSK to the Authenticator in the ASN. The EMSK is retained at the Home AAA Server to generate the mobility keys. From the MSK, both the MS and the Authenticator generate a Pairwise Master Key (PMK) as per IEEE 802.16e specifications, as shown in step (3). Authentication Key (AK) generation: The Authenticator and the MS generate the AK from the PMK based on the algorithm specified in the IEEE 802.16e, as shown in step (4). AK Transfer: The Key Distributor entity in the Authenticator delivers the AK and its context to the Key Receiver entity in the Serving BS, as depicted in step (5). SA-TEK exchange: The MS and the BS perform PKMv2 in three-way handshake procedure as per IEEE 802.16e specification, as shown in step (6). TEK message transfer, Registration and service flow creations are the subsequent process based on IEEE 802.16e standard, as shown in steps (7), (8) and (9). B. Mesh Network WiMAX mesh mode network has mesh base stations. New subscriber stations are called as client nodes (CNs) and the 440
  • 3. active subscriber stations are called sponsor nodes (SNs), since SNs have the capability to sponsor new CNs. The nodes which are one hop away are called neighbor nodes and more than one hop distance nodes are called extended neighbor nodes [1]. The CNs will continuously scan every possible frequency channel and build the physical neighbor list. From the established neighbor list, the new node selects a sponsor node having the best signal quality. Then, the new node synchronizes its time with the chosen sponsor node and sends out a Network Entry Request message (MSH-NENT message with Type=0x02) [1]. The joining node authenticates itself to the sponsor node using an Operator Authentication Value [5], which is an authenticated hash of the MAC address and the node serial number using the shared secret authorization key (AK) as depicted below. HAMC (MAC address|Node Serial Number|AK) Upon receiving this entry request message, the sponsor node will evaluate the request and decide to open or reject a sponsor channel for the new node. If the sponsor node finds an invalid operator authentication value or excess propagation delay or not possible to support additional new nodes, it will reject the entry request and respond in MSH-NCFG message with Type=0x03. If the sponsor node accepts the request, it will send out MSH-NCFG message with Type=0x02. Then, the new node acknowledges the acceptance by replying MSH- NENT message with Type=0x01 [1]. Authorization and TEK exchange [8]: The new node performs the authorization via the sponsor node. First it sends the privacy key management request (PKM-REQ) message with authentication information. Subsequently, the new node sends PKM-REQ message with authorization request PKM- REQ: Auth Request to the sponsor node with the fields indicating X.509 certificate and supporting cryptographic algorithms. The sponsor node will tunnel the received messages over UDP/IP to the authentication node. In response to the authorization request, the Authentication Node validates the requesting new node’s identity, determines the encryption algorithms and authentication key, and sends back the PKM Response message with authorization reply (PKM-RSP) to the sponsor node. Then, the sponsor node forwards the message [8] to the new node as shown in Fig.3. Fig. 3: Client Node Authorization The first exchange is the Key Request message which contains the candidate node's X.509 certificate and SAID. The Key Request message is protected from modification with a HMAC digest. The Key Reply message includes the current AK sequence number, SAID, and Traffic Encryption key parameters-encrypted with the candidate node's public key. The TEK parameters include the old and new TEKs, their remaining lifetime and a 2-bit sequence number. The key reply message also contains an HMAC digest. Nodes use the Operator Shared Secret to calculate the HMAC digest for key request and key reply. Neighbor Authentication [8]: Once the node has been successfully authorized, it activates a TEK exchange for each SAID with its neighbors. The messages are shown in Fig.4. Fig. 4: Neighbor Node Authentication Registration and connectivity: Now the joining node can register and obtain an IP address and start forming links to other nodes in the mesh with the same AK value. III. SECURITY ISSUES AND COUNTER MEASURE - ANALYSIS Security threats may occur in both the PHY and the MAC layers [22]. The attacker attacks with Radio Frequency (RF) channel for PHY layer threats. For MAC layer threats, the attackers spoof, modify and reply the MAC layer messages. In this paper, we concentrate only on MAC layer issues. The following sub-sections discuss the PHY layer security threats and MAC layer security threats along with counter measures. A. PHY layer security issues[6], [22]and [24]: Scrambling and jamming are the two possible threats in PHY layer. For scrambling, the attackers will scramble the uplink slots of other MS’s by their own data and make it unreadable for BS. Jamming at the physical layer is a kind of denial-of-service (DoS) attack that uses intentionally interfering radio communication by introducing the noise to disrupt the reception of messages in both uplink and downlink. B. MAC layer security issues in PMP Network The causes of MAC layer security issues are due to certain un-encrypted MAC management messages. The major security issues in PMP network are, 1. DoS/Reply attacks during MS Initial network entry 2. Latency during handover and unsecured pre- authentication 3. Downgrade attack 4. Cryptographic algorithm computational efficiency 5. Bandwidth spoofing Each security issue and its counter measures are discussed below: 1. DoS/Reply attacks during MS Initial network entry: When the MS enter into the network, it scans the downlink channel and synchronizes with it. In the downlink, BS announces the range of initial ranging code for MS. The MS selects any one of the ranging code and sends it to BS for initial ranging. The BS responds to the successful reception of ranging code by Ranging Response (RNG-RSP) message. The RNG-RSP message is used to nullify the offsets of frequency, time and power used by the MS. Then the MS goes for SBC- REQ and other procedures as shown in Fig.2. The message flows before SA-TEK are un-encrypted nature. So the attacker 441
  • 4. can decode the MAC messages, modify and re-send it to BS or MS. The security issues during initial network entry are: (i) RNG-RSP vulnerability (ii) Auth-Request and Invalid vulnerability and (iii) Rogue BS. In RNG-RSP vulnerability, the attacker modifies the RNG- RSP message and sets the status as failed, then re-sends it to MS. So the MS goes for initial ranging again. If the attacker continuously sets the RNG-RSP status as failed, the MS can not access the network. This leads to the DoS attack. This RNG-RSP vulnerability is solved by Diffie-Hellman (D-H) key agreement [7]. Fig.5 shows the secured initial ranging and network entry procedure using D-H key agreement. In this MS generates the global prime numbers p, q and the secret key. Then it sends the prime numbers p and q to BS along with ranging code. Now the BS can generate the shared secret key from the global prime numbers p and q as per D-H key algorithm. Using the shared secret key the BS encrypts the RNG-RSP message. So the attacker can not modify the status. This secured initial network-entry process (SINP) [10] also solves Auth-Request vulnerability. Fig. 5: Initial Network entry with D-H Key Agreement [7] For Auth-Request and Invalid vulnerability, the attacker captures the Auth-Request message and re-sends it to BS continuously. So the BS would be confused with the continuous request and sets the Auth-Response as failure. Some time the attacker may captures Auth-Response message from BS and re-sends to MS after time out period. This issue can be solved by either introducing nonce [15] or time stamps [20]. By adding nonce or time stamp, MS and BS identifies if the authorization message is proper. So the attacker can not modify the messages. When comparing nonce and time stamp, time stamp is more secure and avoids the replay attack. If the attacker captures the authorization response message and resends it after the time of expiry, the MS can identify with the time stamp value. Fig.6 shows the authorization request/response messages with time stamps, where, TS and TB denote the time stamps of MS and BS in the authorization request/response messages, respectively. Fig. 6: Authorization req/resp with time stamps In [25] the authors suggested the Wireless Public Key Infrastructure (WPKI) to solve the authentication vulnerability. The same issue is solved by visual cryptography in [14]. Since it requires the trusted third party (TTP) server for the implementation, it may not be suitable when considering the end to end network architecture. In rogue BS attack, the SS cannot verify that any authorization protocol messages it receives were generated by an authorized BS. So any rogue BS can create a response. To solve this issue, the SS has to authenticate the BS [15]. The PKMv2 in standard 802.16e solves it by mutual authentication. Solution: From the above discussion, the D-H key agreement [7] is more suitable for initial network entry issues. It solves the both RNG-RSP and Auth-Response vulnerability. 2. Latency during handover and unsecured pre- authentication: When handover occurs, the MS is re- authenticated and authorized by the target BS. The re- authentication and key exchange procedure increase the handover time, which affects the delay sensitive applications. In handover response message, BS informs the MS whether MS needs to do re-authentication with the target BS or not. If the MS is pre-authenticated by target BS before handover, then there is no need of device re-authentication but user authorization is still necessary. For the above issue, the authors [12] proposed two schemes to avoid the device re-authentication. The first scheme adopts the standard EAP but instead of standard EAP method used in handover authentication, an efficient shared key-based EAP method is used using EMSK. Let MSKi and EMSKi be the master and extended master session keys in the ith authentication phase, then MS and AAA will generate the MSKi+1 and EMSKi+1 from the existing MSKi and EMSKi keys before handover takes place. So the device authentication and key (MSK, EMSK) exchange is avoided. The second method skips the standard EAP method and the device authentication is done by SA-TEK three-way handshake in PKMv2 process. Since this method avoids the standard procedures, it is not suitable for implementation. The handover latency can be reduced by simple pre- authentication schemes [19]. But pre-authentication schemes are inefficient and insecure [12]. Another approach for reducing the handover latency is using PKI infrastructure [17] for mutual authentication between target ASN and the MS before handover. Since the messages are encrypted using the public key, security is assured. Mobile IP (MIP) scheme [26] is the new approach to solve the above issue. In this scheme, pre-negotiation with the target BS is in layer 3 MIP tunneling protocol. Solution: For the above issue, MIP scheme [26] is more efficient than the other methods, since the messages are more secured by tunneling protocol and it further reduces the latency during IP connectivity phase. If the MS doesn’t have the MIP support, shared key-based EAP is efficient. 3. Downgrade attack [32]: The first message of the authorization process is an unsecured message from MS telling BS what security capabilities it has. An attacker could, therefore, send a spoofed message to BS containing weaker capabilities in order to convince the BS and the attacked MS to agree on an insecure encryption algorithm. 442
  • 5. Solution: A possible solution for downgrade attack is that the BS could ignore messages with security capabilities under a certain limit [32]. 4. Cryptographic algorithm computational efficiency: The number of bits needed for encryption in RSA is more than Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) for a required encryption, which increases the computation time. Solution: ECC is the good substitute for RSA-based public key cryptography [21, 25]. ECC can achieve the same level of security as RSA with smaller key sizes. 160-bit ECC provides comparable security to 1024-bit RSA and 224-bit ECC provides comparable security to 2048-bit RSA. Another advantage of ECC is that it offers faster computational efficiency and well as memory, energy and bandwidth savings. 5. Bandwidth spoofing: In bandwidth spoofing, the attacker grabs the available bandwidth, by sending the un-necessary BW request message to BS [18]. Recommendation: To solve the bandwidth spoofing, we recommend that the radio resource management in the BS should check the local policy function (LPF) and then allocates the bandwidth only if the MS has necessarily provisioned. This new recommendation is based on QoS model suggested by the WiMAX forum [3]. C. MAC layer security issues in Mesh Network In WiMAX mesh architecture, the CN should maintain the neighbor list after the initial network entry. While creating the neighbor list, it will verify the neighbor validity by neighbor authentication procedures [8]. So the possible threats in the mesh network are, 1. Man-in-middle attack during Initial network entry 2. Man-in-middle attack during neighbor authentication 3. Encryption load issues 4. Bandwidth spoofing 1. Man-in-middle attack during Initial network entry [5,8,9,18,21]: In mesh mode, there are more chances that malicious node can act as the SN and spoof the new node information during network entry and during time of neighbor establishment. For authentication, the CN has to authenticate with the sponsor node using operator shared secret (OSS) key which is similar to AK in PMP mode. The OSS key is common for all the nodes in the mesh network. This Sponsor Node Impersonation leads to Man-in-the Middle/Reply Attack. To prevent the SN impersonations, CN should verify the sponsor node joining message. In [5], the authors proposed a scheme which assigns a different secret authorization key for each node. This key is used in the Mesh PKM Request and Mesh PKM Response to authenticate the joining node to the authorization server and vice versa. The authorization message flow is shown in Fig. 7. The PKM request and response messages are depicted below. Mesh PKM Request MACjoining | SERIALjoining | H{MACjoining|SERIALjoining|AKjoining } Mesh PKM Response MACbase | SERIALbase | H {MACbase|SERIALbase|AKjoining } Fig. 7: Network entry and authentication of a new node [5] The Man-in-the Middle attack during authorization is solved by adding the time stamp [8] or nonce [21] similar to the PMP issue. The authorization message flows along with time stamp is shown in Fig.8. The last two messages of original message sequences are added with time stamps and the third message is used for mutual authentication. Fig. 8: Authorization request/response with time stamp Solution: From the above discussion, the centralized authentication server scheme solves the SN impersonation [5] during authentication and time-stamp solves the man-in-middle attack during authorization. 2. Man-in-middle attack during neighbor authentication: This is similar to initial network entry, man-in-middle attack. During neighbor authentication, the attacker spoofs the security information of CN. Solution: The same time stamp technique is used for authenticating the neighbor node. The message sequence with time stamp [8] from CN to SN in (1) and SN to CN (2) as depicted below TC | Candidate-X.509 | SAID | HMAC (1) TC | TN | AK_SeqNo | Neighbor-X.509 | SAID| PubKey (OldTEK, NewTEK) | Lifetime | HMAC(2) 3. Encryption load issues: In mesh mode, the SN decrypts each payload and then transfers the traffic to the BS after encrypting the data with its own OSS key. This leads to encryption load issue and data insecurity. Solution: To solve the encryption load issue [5], the encryption should be done between the subscriber and the BS and not just to the next hop. So the SN simply forwards the traffic, in its encrypted form, to and from the mesh BS. For this purpose, the authors [5] introduced a new mesh sub-header which contains the ids of the transmitting node, the sponsor node, and the mesh BS node. This differs from the current standard containing only the transmitting node id. The SN can use these ids to route without having to decrypt the message. 4. Bandwidth spoofing: The issue and the recommendation are similar to PMP network. 443
  • 6. IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK The IEEE 802.16e based WiMAX network provides better security architecture, compared to 802.16d, and basically secures the wireless transmission using different components such as X.509 certificates, PKMv2, the Security Associations, encryption methods and the Encapsulation Protocol. However, it still lacks complete security solutions due to certain unsecured MAC management messages and the mesh network is not analyzed clearly. The existing individual research considered the issues such as secured ranging, authentication, and authorization during key exchange phase, handover and neighbor authentication. In this work, all the existing research efforts were analyzed based on the end to end network architecture and suitable solutions have been suggested. For PMP network, the integrated solution consists of D-H key agreement for secured initial network entry, MIP scheme to avoid the latency and pre-authentication issue during handover, neglecting the SBC-Req if the security capabilities are under certain limit and ECC algorithm to improve the computational efficiency from the existing research. For mesh network, the integrated solution consists of centralized authentication server along with different OSS for secured initial network entry, data forwarding to avoid the encryption load issue and time stamp in authentication message for SN and neighbor authentications from the existing research. The new recommendation for bandwidth spoofing in both PMP and mesh networks is the BS allocates the uplink bandwidth only if the user is necessarily provisioned. We are working further to find the solutions for Physical layer security threats and the simulations for the discussed counter measures to create the complete solution. 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