attack during the discovery phase. This attack benefits from the fact that NSIS nodes are likely to be unaware of the network topology. Furthermore, an authorization problem might arise if an NSIS QoS NSLP node pretends to be an NSIS NAT/Firewall-specific node or vice versa.
An adversary might inject a bogus reply message, forcing the discovery message initiator to start a messaging association establishment with either an adversary or with another NSIS node that is not along the path. Figure 3 describes the attack in more detail for peer-to-peer addressed messages with a discovery mechanism. For end-to-end addressed messages, the attack is also applicable, particularly if the adversary is located along the path and able to intercept the discovery message that traverses the adversary. The man-in-the-middle adversary might redirect to another legitimate NSIS node. A malicious NSIS node can be detected with the corresponding security mechanisms, but a legitimate NSIS node that is not the next NSIS node along the path cannot be detected without topology knowledge.
+-----------+ Messaging Association Message Adversary Establishment Association +--->+ +<----------------+ Establish- +----+------+ (4) ment IPx (3) Discovery Reply v (IPx) +---+-------+