Quantitative Model Checking for Assessing the Energy Impact of a MITM Attack on EPONs

Abstract

Broadcasting the downstream traffic makes the Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPONs) vulnerable to eavesdropping which is typically the initial step of an active attack, such as Man in the Middle attack (MITM). A MITM attack in such a network can be implemented by employing a fake Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and overwhelm computational, bandwidth, or energy resources. The latter is of great interest since Passive Optical Networks (PONs) are estimated to be the largest energy consumers among optical networks. In this paper we use formal analysis to quantitatively assess the impact of a fake OLT attacking an EPON energy-efficiency mechanism. Formal verification techniques, such as model checking, constitute the perfect candidate for security verification, since they can analyze systems and protocols based on rigorous model definitions. Our results show that a MITM attack increases the energy expenditure, since it enforces the Optical Network Units (ONUs) to stay in the active mode even in cases of none network traffic.