RPL-based Passive OS Fingerprinting in Low-power and Lossy Wireless Sensor Networks

RPL-based Passive OS Fingerprinting in Low-power and Lossy Wireless Sensor Networks

Güdek, Ahmet (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Smaragdakis, G. (mentor)
Liang, K. (graduation committee)
Iosifidis, G. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Computer Engineering

2022-07-08

Since the introduction of networking protocols for Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLN), many implementations have been created in the form of (real-time) Operating Systems (OS), simplifying their usage and making the technology more widely available. The low cost and low complexity of LLNs allow for large-scaled wireless sensor deployments, making it infeasible to frequently renew the deployed hardware. In addition to this, the low processing and memory requirements of the hardware increase the difficulty of patching their software or adding new security features to it, making them useful targets for hackers. The knowledge of what OS is running on a device is valuable, as each OS will have their own set of security issues and mitigation methods. We investigate the possibilities of OS fingerprinting in the LLN space by simulating networks of devices running a variety of OSes. Focusing specifically on the RPL routing protocol, we build a classifier based on packet headers and communication meta-data, able to differentiate between the investigated OSes. From the results, we illustrate the feasibility of OS fingerprinting based on RPL control frame header contents.

wireless sensor networks
operating systems
fingerprinting
RPL
networking
LLN
meta-data

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cf4a0148-9c99-4ae8-9abd-f1855e28787b

Student theses

master thesis

© 2022 Ahmet Güdek