Detection and Prevention of Malicious Node in Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) face significant security challenges, particularly from malicious nodes exploiting packet capture and tunneling attacks, compromising network integrity. Existing solutions often require additional hardware, increase transmission delays, or fail to ensure optimal throughput and energy efficiency. To address these limitations, the Hybrid Malicious Node Detection (HMND) algorithm was developed. HMND identifies in-band malicious nodes using hop count and Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) criteria and detects out-of- band malicious nodes based on transmission distances. Unlike traditional approaches, HMND eliminates the need for extra hardware or comprehensive node identification, reducing latency and energy consumption. Implemented in the NS-2 simulator, HMND demonstrated superior performance across metrics such as throughput, energy consumption, PDR, and end-to-end delay. By enhancing the detection process within Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocols, HMND effectively improves global network performance, offering a robust solution to mitigate malicious node threats in WSNs.