Received 29 July 2023, accepted 14 August 2023, date of publication 23 August 2023, date of current version 6 September 2023. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3308035 Detecting and Preventing False Nodes and Messages in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networking (VANET) SADAF MASOOD 1 , YOUSAF SAEED 1 , ABID ALI 2,3 , HARUN JAMIL 4 , NAGWAN ABDEL SAMEE 5 , HAYAM ALAMRO 5,6 , MOHAMMED SALEH ALI MUTHANNA 7 , AND ABDUKODIR KHAKIMOV 8 1 Department of Information Technology, The University of Haripur, Haripur 22620, Pakistan 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Taxila 48080, Pakistan 3 Department of Computer Science, GANK(S) DC KTS, Haripur 22620, Pakistan 4 Department of Electronic Engineering, Jeju National University, Jeju-si 63243, South Korea 5 Department of Information Technology, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia 6 Department of Information Systems, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia 7 Institute of Computer Technologies and Information Security, Southern Federal University, 347922 Taganrog, Russia 8 RUDN University, 117198 Moscow, Russia Corresponding author: Hayam Alamro (hmamro@pnu.edu.sa) This research was funded by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2023R361), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in part this paper has been supported by the RUDN University Strategic Academic Leadership Program (recipient Abdukodir Khakimov). ABSTRACT Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) is an advanced mobile wireless network. The escalation of equipped vehicles on the road grabs the attention of researchers and is constantly striving to take it further. This type of wireless network infrastructure helps to establish communication between vehicles. Roadside units, sensors, and vehicular nodes are the critical components of our work to protect the vehicular network. This research is focused on detecting and preventing fake vehicular nodes and their messages by applying fake node detection and prevention algorithms and counterfeit message detection and prevention algorithms. In our proposed approach, the fake node detection and prevention algorithms check the node profile after establishing the mesh structure. If the profile attribute named ‘‘Pen/Rew’’ satisfies the condition that should be less than or equal to a threshold value (zero), the fake message detection and prevention process starts. The message will be accepted once the situation is satisfied; otherwise, it is declared fake. We utilized ONE (opportunistic network environment) simulator to generate node movement models, route messages between nodes, and visualize mobility and messaging passing in real time. The results indicated that our proposed work perfectly detects and prevents fake nodes and messages. INDEX TERMS VANET, roadside unit, fake nodes, fake messages, ONE simulator. I. INTRODUCTION VANET is an advanced and particular type of mobile wireless network. The escalation of equipped vehicles on the road grabs researchers’ attention, and they are constantly striving to take it further. This type of wireless network infrastructure helps to establish communication between vehicles. Roadside The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Baoping Cai . units, sensors, and vehicular nodes are the key components in vehicular ad-hoc networks to make communication possi- ble. In such a network, the vehicle communicates with each other called vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or with a roadside unit called vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). The vehicular ad-hoc network aims to achieve road efficiency, reduce traffic prob- lems, and improve VANET security. The intelligent transport system addresses network reliability, as vehicles can send information about their location across vehicular networks. 93920 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ VOLUME 11, 2023