Modeling and Defending against Resource Depletion Attacks in 5G Networks

Security in 5G Networks is of paramount importance due to the safety critical nature of the mobile data coupled with the insecurity of cellular infrastructure. Attackers can compromise mobile devices using various methods such as malware, mobile bots, viruses, etc. Further, malicious connections generated by the compromised devices could potentially deplete the resources of the cellular infrastructure thus causing a denial of service. Thus, a need for defending against resource depletion attacks in 5G becomes necessary. Towards this goal, we develop an algorithmic load distribution scheme that employs a decentralized approach in each base station to defend against Resource Depletion Attacks. In particular, the algorithm monitors each base station and performs handover of User Equipment (UE) among the neighbors under suspected attack based on the application traffic patterns that consider load on the base stations. To validate the scheme, we model the botnet attack and the increasing number of malicious connections. Our simulations conducted using ns-3 LTE package significantly mitigates the impact of resource depletion attacks on cellular base stations through application-aware load balancing.