NETA framework architecture

The NETA framework uses the same idea as OMNeT++, i.e., modules that communicate by message passing.

The general idea of the present framework is to develop new nodes which can strike attacks. In order to do this, the implemented attacks are managed in what we called attack controllers. These controllers affect to one or more modules of INET framework through control messages sending parameters of the developed attacks. Therefore, these modules should be conveniently modified to obey the orders of the control messages. These modified modules are named hacked modules. The creation of an attacker can be summarized as: (i) add to the associated .ned file the controllers related with the attacks to be executed, (ii) create the associate control messages and, (iii) substitute the modules these attack controllers need to use by the correspondent hacked modules.

In Fig. 1 we can see the comparison between a normal node and an attacker node. The normal node is composed of simple and compound modules which communicate between them. The attacker node is composed of the same number of modules and its communications and the attack controller modules. However, some modules have been substituted by the correspondent hacked modules to allow the execution of the attacks trigger by the included attack controllers.

Fig. 1: Scheme comparison between an original node and its attacker in NETwork Attacks frame-work.

In Fig. 2 we present an example of the module that compose a normal node (AdhocHost) and its correspondent attacker node (MA_AdhocHost) .

Fig. 2: Real comparison between an original AdhocHost and MA AdhocHost.

(a) Modules of AdhocHost node	(b) Modules of MA AdhocHost node

Folder structure

The folders of this framework has a specific structure we describe in the following (we only mention the specific folders of this framework excluding the folders in common with OMNeT++):

• src:
  • attacks : In this folder are located the attack controllers and the control messages used by these controllers to communicate with the associated hacked modules.
  • hackedmodules : Here it can be found all the modified modules to be able of triggering the implemented attacks by this release, i.e., the hacked modules.
  • nodes : In this folder it can be found all the new hosts that are a slight modification of the existent ones in INET framework. They have inside of them the correspondent hacked modules.
• simulations: Here the simulations to demonstrate the use of the implemented attacks by this framework are present.

For more information about the NETA framework architecture, please read the NETA Framework manual.

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