Cloned Access Point Detection and Point Detection and Prevention Mechanism in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Mesh Networks

IEEE 802.11 Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is an emerging low cost, decentralized community-based broadband technology, which is based on self-healing and multi-hop deployment of Access Points (APs), so that to increase the coverage area with maximum freedom to end-users to join or leave the network from anywhere anytime having low deployment and maintenance cost. Such kind of decentralized structure and multihop architecture increases its security vulnerabilities especially against the APs. One of such possible security attack is the placement of cloned AP to create serious performance degradation in IEEE 802.11 WMN. In this paper, we discuss the different security vulnerabilities of AP in IEEE 802.11 WMN along with possible research directions. We also propose a mutual cooperation mechanism between the multi-hop APs and serving gateway so that to detect and prevent the possibility of cloned AP. In this way the large scale exploitation of IEEE 802.11 WMN can be eliminated

Wireless Handheld Solution for the Gaming Industry

of the essential elements of success in the gaming industry is the requirement of providing exceptional customer service. Technology plays a significant role in bringing state of the art solutions that enhance the overall customer experience. Currently a guest must go through multiple steps and a variety of departments to simply resolve issues with their player accounts (loyalty programs), update customer profiles, book hotel and restaurant reservations, sign up for promotions, etc. In order to effectively take care of these customers in both a timely and efficient manner, a wireless handheld device is needed that employees can carry with them to resolve and address these concerns. This project is aimed at identifying the proper wireless infrastructure for the gaming environment and also the wireless handheld device, such as an Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) to effectively and efficiently take care of customers

Security technologies for wireless access to local area networks

In today’s world, computers and networks are connected to all life aspects and professions. The amount of information, personal and organizational, spread over the network is increasing exponentially. Simultaneously, malicious attacks are being developed at the same speed, which makes having a secure network system a crucial factor on every level and in any organization. Achieving a high protection level has been the goal of many organizations, such as the Wi-Fi Alliance R , and many standards and protocols have been developed over time. This work addresses the historical development of WLAN security technologies, starting from the oldest standard, WEP, and reaching the newly released standard WPA3, passing through the several versions in between,WPA, WPS, WPA2, and EAP. Along with WPA3, this work addresses two newer certificates, Enhanced OpenTM and Easy ConnectTM. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the previous standards is also presented, detailing their security mechanisms, flaws, attacks, and the measures they have adopted to prevent these attacks. Focusing on the new released WPA3, this work presents a deep study on both WPA3 and EAP-pwd. The development of WPA3 had the objective of providing strong protection, even if the network’s password is considered weak. However, this objective was not fully accomplished and some recent research work discovered design flaws in this new standard. Along with the above studies, this master thesis’ work builds also a network for penetration testing using a set of new devices that support the new standard. A group of possible attacks onWi-Fi latest security standards was implemented on the network, testing the response against each of them, discussing the reason behind the success or the failure of the attack, and providing a set of countermeasures applicable against these attacks. Obtained results show that WPA3 has overcome many of WPA2’s issues, however, it is still unable to overcome some major Wi-Fi vulnerabilities.No mundo de hoje, os computadores e as redes estão conectados praticamente a todos os aspectos da nossa vida pessoal e profissional. A quantidade de informações, pessoais e organizacionais, espalhadas pela rede está a aumentar exponencialmente. Simultaneamente, também os ataques maliciosos estão a aumentar à mesma velocidade, o que faz com que um sistema de rede seguro seja um fator crucial a todos os níveis e em qualquer organização. Alcançar altos níveis de proteção tem sido o objetivo de trabalho de muitas organizações, como a Wi-Fi Alliance R , tendo muitos standards e protocolos sido desenvolvidos ao longo do tempo. Este trabalho aborda o desenvolvimento histórico das tecnologias de segurança para WLANs, começando pelo standard mais antigo, WEP, e acabando no recém-chegado WPA3, passando pelas várias versões intermedias, WPA, WPS, WPA2 e EAP. Juntamente com o WPA3, este trabalho aborda os dois certificados mais recentes, Enhanced OpenTM e Easy ConnectTM. Além disso, também é apresentada uma análise comparativa dos standards anteriores, detalhando os seus principais mecanismos de segurança, falhas, ataques a que são susceptíveis e medidas adotadas para evitar esses ataques. Quanto ao novo WPA3 e EAP-pwd, este trabalho apresenta um estudo aprofundado sobre os seus modos "Personal" e "Enterprise". O desenvolvimento do WPA3 teve por objetivo fornecer proteção forte, mesmo que a password de rede seja considerada fraca. No entanto, esse objetivo não foi totalmente alcançado e alguma investigação realizada recentemente detectou falhas de desenho nesse novo padrão. Juntamente com os estudo dos standards acima referidos, o trabalho realizado para esta tese de mestrado também constrói uma rede para testes de penetração usando um conjunto de novos dispositivos que já suportam o novo standard. São aplicados vários ataques aos mais recentes padrões de segurança Wi-Fi, é testada a sua resposta contra cada um deles, é discutindo o motivo que justifica o sucesso ou a falha do ataque, e são indicadas contramedidas aplicáveis a esses ataques. Os resultados obtidos mostram que o WPA3 superou muitos dos problemas do WPA2 mas que, no entanto, ainda é incapaz de superar algumas das vulnerabilidades presentes nas redes Wi-Fi.First, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to those who gave me the possibility to complete my study and get my Master degree, the Aga Khan Foundation, who has supported me financiall

A Practical guide to understanding wireless networking concepts, security protocols, attack, and safer deployment schemes

With the explosion of wireless networks appearing in buildings, business and educational campuses, and even homes; security is a large concern in order to prevent attempted intrusions and malicious attacks from the retrieval of confidential data. Wireless Fidelity, Wi-Fi for short, does provide security in the form called Wired Equivalent Privacy otherwise simply known as WEP. However cases documenting WEP\u27s security mechanism being breached in legitimate and illegitimate cases have been published and are readily available on the Internet. While wireless networks provide the freedom of mobility for users, this also allows potential hackers to eavesdrop on unsuspecting wireless users. Or worse, one could potentially hijack an access point and gain unauthorized access past the wireless network and then into the wired internal network. Thus an intruder who has hijacked an access point will be able to access critical data while hiding safely outside the building. Knowledge and understanding of wireless networks and of its security is a necessary step to be learnt if wireless networks are to be deployed securely especially in congested urban settings

Control access security: wireless LAN auditing framework

Malaysian Government agencies are gradually enhancing their ICT infrastructure. The wireless network is one of the important elements in ICT infrastructure since it is famously known for the most vulnerable area of cyber-attacks. Planning a perfect access control and security protection for wireless network is one of the crucial task of network administrator and information security officer. Generally, data transfer in government agencies is highly classified and if it falls into wrong parties it could lead to a major disaster. This identified wireless network risk has to be mitigated with highly durable security and network protection. It is important to develop a highly secure network for government agencies and this could assist by a standard network security auditing framework as a guideline. This guideline can be applied by all the government agencies during their network development project and secure their network is fully protected. Therefore, an operating government agency is selected for this research for further study and development of this framework. A survey and observation activities have been conducted to collect sufficient information needed and a standard auditing framework is developed

Wi-Fi Enabled Healthcare

Focusing on its recent proliferation in hospital systems, Wi-Fi Enabled Healthcare explains how Wi-Fi is transforming clinical work flows and infusing new life into the types of mobile devices being implemented in hospitals. Drawing on first-hand experiences from one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States, it covers the key areas associated with wireless network design, security, and support. Reporting on cutting-edge developments and emerging standards in Wi-Fi technologies, the book explores security implications for each device type. It covers real-time location services and emerging trends in cloud-based wireless architecture. It also outlines several options and design consideration for employee wireless coverage, voice over wireless (including smart phones), mobile medical devices, and wireless guest services. This book presents authoritative insight into the challenges that exist in adding Wi-Fi within a healthcare setting. It explores several solutions in each space along with design considerations and pros and cons. It also supplies an in-depth look at voice over wireless, mobile medical devices, and wireless guest services. The authors provide readers with the technical knowhow required to ensure their systems provide the reliable, end-to-end communications necessary to surmount today’s challenges and capitalize on new opportunities. The shared experience and lessons learned provide essential guidance for large and small healthcare organizations in the United States and around the world. This book is an ideal reference for network design engineers and high-level hospital executives that are thinking about adding or improving upon Wi-Fi in their hospitals or hospital systems

Wireless Local Area Network Security : An Investigation Into Security Tool Usage In Wireless Networks

Many organisations and individuals installing wireless local area networks (WLANs), which are based on the IEEE 802.11 b standard, have little understanding of the security issues that surround this technology. This study was initiated to determine how WLAN security issues affect organisations in Perth, Western Australia. The scope of the study was restricted to 802.llb WLANs operating in infrastructure mode, where all traffic is transmitted by wireless access points (APs). This study was conducted in two phases. The general aims of the first phase were to determine the number of detectable WLANs in the Perth Central Business District (CBD) and subsequently, the percentage of them that have enabled Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). Additionally, phase 1 was able to show how many WLANs were still using the manufacturer\u27s default settings and how the network devices may be grouped according to manufacturer. The general aims of the second phase were to find out if the IT managers of various Perth organisations were aware of the security issues related to WLANs and to find out the degree to which the security tools and processes have been implemented. These aims were also achieved and in addition, anecdotal information was collected and analysed. The results of this study indicate that in the Perth CBD, the majority of those persons responsible for the implementation and management of wireless networks are aware of the problems and have taken steps to secure their networks

Enhancing Message Privacy In Wired Equivalent Privacy.

The 802.11 standard defines the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and encapsulation of data frames. It is intended to provide data privacy to the level of a wired network. WEP suffered threat of attacks from hackers owing to certain security shortcomings in the WEP protocol. Lately, many new protocols like WiFi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2, Robust Secure Network (RSN) and 802.11i have come into being, yet their implementation is fairly limited. Despite its shortcomings one cannot undermine the importance of WEP as it still remains the most widely used system and we chose to address certain security issues and propose some modifications to make it more secure. In this thesis we have proposed a modification to the existing WEP protocol to make it more secure. We achieve Message Privacy by ensuring that the encryption is not breached. The idea is to update the shared secret key frequently based on factors like network traffic and number of transmitted frames. We also develop an Initialization Vector (IV) avoidance algorithm that eliminates IV collision problem. The idea is to partition the IV bits among different wireless hosts in a predetermined manner unique to every node. We can use all possible 224 different IVs without making them predictable for an attacker. Our proposed algorithm eliminates the IV collision ensuring Message Privacy that further strengthens security of the existing WEP. We show that frequent rekeying thwarts all kinds of cryptanalytic attacks on the WEP

A Survey on Wireless Security: Technical Challenges, Recent Advances and Future Trends

This paper examines the security vulnerabilities and threats imposed by the inherent open nature of wireless communications and to devise efficient defense mechanisms for improving the wireless network security. We first summarize the security requirements of wireless networks, including their authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and availability issues. Next, a comprehensive overview of security attacks encountered in wireless networks is presented in view of the network protocol architecture, where the potential security threats are discussed at each protocol layer. We also provide a survey of the existing security protocols and algorithms that are adopted in the existing wireless network standards, such as the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and the long-term evolution (LTE) systems. Then, we discuss the state-of-the-art in physical-layer security, which is an emerging technique of securing the open communications environment against eavesdropping attacks at the physical layer. We also introduce the family of various jamming attacks and their counter-measures, including the constant jammer, intermittent jammer, reactive jammer, adaptive jammer and intelligent jammer. Additionally, we discuss the integration of physical-layer security into existing authentication and cryptography mechanisms for further securing wireless networks. Finally, some technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are summarized and the future trends in wireless security are discussed.Comment: 36 pages. Accepted to Appear in Proceedings of the IEEE, 201