Defending Against Wormhole Attacks in Wireless Networks Using the Twofish Algorithm: A Performance Analysis

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are becoming more essential in areas such as environmental monitoring, industrial automation, and healthcare. However, their wireless nature leaves them vulnerable to security threats such as eavesdropping, tampering, and attacks. This paper introduces a robust and secure algorithm for WSNs that enhances their security and reliability by incorporating key distribution, packet timestamping, location-based detection, wormhole detection, packet encryption, and wormhole prevention. Our algorithm utilizes the TwoFish algorithm to establish a shared key, timestamps each data packet using a synchronized network time protocol, monitors hop count, determines the distance between nodes using RSSI or other location-based techniques, exchanges probe packets to detect wormhole attacks, and encrypts data packets with TwoFish. In the event of a wormhole assault, it isolates the affected network segment by obstructing communication in that area. The efficacy of this approach is validated through implementation in a simulated NS-2 network environment, demonstrating significant enhancements in the security and reliability of WSNs against wormhole attacks.