Trust and security in wireless sensor networks: A literature review of approaches for malicious node detection

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely used in various fields such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, military applications, and smart cities. However, due to their decentralized nature, limited resources, and deployment in often hostile environments, WSNs are vulnerable to several security threats, especially malicious node attacks. Malicious nodes can disrupt network operations by dropping packets, injecting false data, or launching attacks such as sinkholes, wormholes, and Sybil attacks. To counter these threats, numerous malicious node detection methods have been proposed, ranging from trust-based models to anomaly detection techniques and clustering-based approaches. In parallel, the design of efficient routing protocols plays a critical role in ensuring energy-efficient and secure data transmission within the network. This review paper presents a comprehensive analysis of existing techniques for malicious node detection and efficient routing in WSNs