The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) was standardised by the IETF ROLL Working Group to address the routing issues in the Internet of Things (IoT) Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). RPL builds and maintains a Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG) topology using pieces of information propagated within the DODAG Information Object (DIO) control message. When a node intends to join the DODAG, it either waits for DIO or sends a DODAG Information Solicitation (DIS) control message Multicast to solicit DIOs from nearby nodes. Nevertheless, sending Multicast DIS messages resets the timer that regulates the transmission rate of DIOs to its minimum value, which leads to the network’s congestion with control messages. Because of the resource-constrained nature of RPL-LLNs, the lack of tamper resistance, and the security gaps of RPL, malicious nodes can exploit the Multicast DIS solicitation mechanism to trigger an RPL-specification-based attack, named DIS attack. The DIS attack can have severe consequences on RPL networks, especially on control packets overhead and power consumption. In this paper, we use the Cooja–Contiki simulator to assess the DIS attack’s effects on both static and dynamic PRL networks. Besides, we propose and implement a novel approach, namely RPL-MRC, to improve the RPL’s resilience against DIS Multicast. RPL-MRC aims to reduce the response to DIS Multicast messages. Simulation results demonstrate how the attack could damage the network performance by significantly increasing the control packets overhead and power consumption. On the other hand, the RPL-MRC proposed mechanism shows a significant enhancement in reducing the control overhead and power consumption for different scenarios.

低功耗和有损网络 (RPL) 的 IPv6 路由协议由 IETF ROLL 工作组标准化，以解决物联网 (IoT) 低功耗和有损网络 (LLN) 中的路由问题。RPL 使用在 DODAG 信息对象 (DIO) 控制消息中传播的信息片段来构建和维护目的地定向有向无环图 (DODAG) 拓扑。当一个节点打算加入 DODAG 时，它要么等待 DIO，要么发送 DODAG 信息请求 (DIS) 控制消息多播以从附近的节点请求 DIO。然而，发送组播 DIS 消息会将调节 DIO 传输速率的计时器重置为其最小值，这会导致网络拥塞控制消息。由于 RPL-LLN 的资源受限性质，缺乏抗篡改能力，由于 RPL 的安全漏洞，恶意节点可以利用组播 DIS 请求机制触发基于 RPL 规范的攻击，称为 DIS 攻击。DIS 攻击会对 RPL 网络造成严重后果，尤其是在控制数据包开销和功耗方面。在本文中，我们使用 Cooja-Contiki 模拟器来评估 DIS 攻击对静态和动态 PRL 网络的影响。此外，我们提出并实施了一种新颖的方法，即 RPL-MRC，以提高 RPL 对 DIS 多播的弹性。RPL-MRC 旨在减少对 DIS 多播消息的响应。仿真结果展示了攻击如何通过显着增加控制数据包开销和功耗来破坏网络性能。另一方面，