# Evaluation of Resource Exhaustion Attacks against Wireless Mobile Devices
## 4 Use Cases  
As a basis for modeling and evaluating of ERE attacks, taking into account the generalized intruder model (1), we developed two cyber-physical use cases. The first one represents a fragment of a TCP/IP network of end-user mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, laptops, etc., operating primarily from autonomous power supplies and using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless communication protocols under the control of a mobile operating system. The business part of these devices is formed by specific applications capable of communication to other devices in the Internet via cellular networks and local wireless networks. High criticality of business applications in communications with other devices as well as possible dynamic switching between the available and preferable physical communication channels (assuming no interruption of the applications) make the devices rather vulnerable to attacking influences. Among the four attack classes presented above, the attack of wireless traffic growth, not even presuming mandatory intruder's authorization on the device, is seen as the more relevant for this use case. In particular, even in case of WPA2 keys, which cannot be enumerated effectively by a brute force attacker, sending request sequences to a Wi-Fi interface of the device intensively can significantly reduce the battery life or even exhaust it to zero. Note the increase of the electromagnetic noise or shielding is also quite a universal attack. At that, attacks of an abnormal usage of a devices' software, including activation of energy consuming functions/modules, for example forced switching on a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor, presume previous remote access and governing the device, which complicates the feasibility of this attack. The second use case represents a self-organizing mesh network designed for operational management and emergency response. The network is constructed on the base of the ZigBee protocol. Its core elements are wireless XBee 52 ZB modules of the coordinator, routers and end devices \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c p{284.5 pt}} \hline
**Attack Goal** & **Spending Battery by Forcing the Device to Execute Unnecessary Operations** \\ \hline Attack features & Attack category _<type0_- _type4_, _level1_ and _above_>. \\ \hline Actions of intruder & Additional CPU load, multiple launch of applications, access energy consuming memory, bypass/breaking optimizations and abnormal use of the software, remote desktop session, etc. \\ \hline Required abilities and conditions of intruder & Penetration abilities for straightforward/remote access to the device and for executing new software on it. \\ \hline Conclusion & The attack presumes the most serious effect of the attacker to the device. \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Misuse of a device’s software. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c p{284.5 pt}} \hline
**Attack Goal** & **Forcing the Device to Raise the Signal Power During the Wireless Data Transmitting** \\ \hline Attack features & Commonly wireless modules pass data at the minimum power to decrease battery expenses. Attack category _<type2_, _level2 and above_>. \\ \hline Actions of intruder & Electromagnetic noising on transmission channels. \\ \hline Required abilities and conditions of intruder & The attacker must have special equipment allowing affecting the communication channel. The one must be in a short distance of the device. \\ \hline Conclusion & 1. An attack can be fulfilled without straightforward influence on the device. \\  & 2. The distance depends on wave frequencies and the antenna of the intruder. \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Forming electromagnetic interference on wireless channels (jamming). roles [32] as well as unmanned aerial vehicles used to ensure connectivity of the network nodes and increase the capacity of communication channels in conditions of poorly predictable physical movement of the nodes. Figure 1 schematically discloses the main devices of the analyzed prototype and information flows between them [18].