Detection of Attacks in Software-Defined Networks (SDN)* : *How to conduct attacks in SDN environments

Abstract

Over decades, the software-defined network commonly named SDN has been prioritized by many industries and academia over traditional networks. The SDN properties offer better security of the managed network and offer better network monitoring. However, its popularity has been drawn drastically to attackers’ attention. In this paper, we evaluate the security posture of the SDN networks and prove that they are subject to several vulnerabilities by simulating attacks against devices in the network. Abusing those weaknesses can jeopardize the company’s reputation as well as its financial situation. Therefore, to achieve the exploitation, we simulate the attacks using Mininet and RYU controller tools. Additionally, we briefly talk about the mitigation techniques as we will deal with them in our future work.