A Research on Securing Lightweight Data Interchange in Ad-hoc Networks: A Comparative Study of XML and JSON Vulnerabilities

The rapid adoption of ad-hoc networks in mobile and distributed systems has amplified the demand for secure, efficient, and lightweight data interchange formats. Among the most widely used standards, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) remain essential for structured communication across heterogeneous and resource-constrained devices. Despite their popularity, both formats are vulnerable to a variety of security threats, including injection attacks, Denial-Of-Service (DoS), and data tampering, which can severely compromise system integrity and availability. This research presents a comparative analysis of XML and JSON security vulnerabilities in ad-hoc network environments, systematically identifying common attack vectors and assessing their impact on network performance. To address these challenges, a novel hybrid validation and encryption framework, termed the Lightweight Secure Interchange Layer (LSIL), is proposed. LSIL combines schema validation, anomaly detection, and lightweight cryptographic techniques to enhance data protection without imposing significant computational overhead. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that LSIL achieves over 90% attack detection accuracy while maintaining low latency, making it highly suitable for real-time, resource-limited mobile and ad-hoc network applications.