A survey of link flooding attacks in software defined network ecosystems

Link Flooding Attacks (LFA) are a devastating type of stealthy denial of service attack that congests critical network links and can completely isolate the victim's network. In this work, we present a systematic survey of LFA patterns on all the layers of the Software Defined Network (SDN) ecos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of network and computer applications 2020-12, Vol.172, p.102803, Article 102803
Main Authors: Rasool, Raihan ur, Wang, Hua, Ashraf, Usman, Ahmed, Khandakar, Anwar, Zahid, Rafique, Wajid
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Link flooding attacks
SDN attacks
SDN security
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Summary:Link Flooding Attacks (LFA) are a devastating type of stealthy denial of service attack that congests critical network links and can completely isolate the victim's network. In this work, we present a systematic survey of LFA patterns on all the layers of the Software Defined Network (SDN) ecosystem, along with a comparative analysis of mitigation techniques. The paper starts by examining different LFA types, techniques, and behaviors in wired and wireless SDNs. Next, an in-depth analysis of mitigation techniques is presented along with their suitability for each of the SDN variants. Subsequently, the significance of a pattern matching and machine learning-based detection and mitigation approaches as a defense against these attacks is highlighted. The paper also contributes by discussing the vulnerabilities of in-band SDNs against LFA when the interface of the data/control plane is attacked by saturating shared strategic links through stealth flows.
ISSN:1084-8045
1095-8592
DOI:10.1016/j.jnca.2020.102803