Welcome to

PES University
Ring Road Campus, Bengaluru
Next-Gen Wireless Networks: Standards,
Technologies and 5G
Dr. Radhika M. Hirannaiah
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
radhikam@pes.edu
 Emergency Exit Assembly Point Washroom

No Chatting Phones on silent No Sleeping

Department of CSE
Introduction to Wireless Fundamentals
Unit 1 – Part 4

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802.11i Wireless Security

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Key Factors Contributing to Higher Security Risks in
Wireless Network as compared to Wired Network
☞ Channel: broadcast communication (more susceptible to eavesdropping
and jamming than wired)
☞ Mobility: wireless devices are more portable and mobile, additional risks
☞ Resources: advanced OS (iPhone, Android), but limited resources (memory,
processing) to counter threats– denial of service, malware
☞ Accessibility: Certain devices may be left unattended (remote and/or
hostile locations), vulnerable to physical attacks

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Wireless Network Threats
☞ Accidental association : Wireless access points in close proximity (e.g., in the same or
neighboring buildings) may create overlapping transmission ranges. A user intending to connect
to one LAN may unintentionally lock on to a wireless access point from a neighboring network.
Although the security breach is accidental, it nevertheless exposes resources of one LAN to the
accidental user.

☞ Malicious association : a wireless device is configured to appear to be a legitimate access point,

enabling the operator to steal passwords from legitimate users and then penetrate a wired
network through a legitimate wireless access point.

☞ Ad hoc networks : peer-to-peer networks between wireless computers with no access point
between them. Such networks can pose a security threat due to a lack of a central point of
control.

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Wireless Network Threats

☞ Nontraditional networks : Nontraditional networks and links, such as personal

network Bluetooth devices, barcode readers, and handheld PDAs, pose a security
risk in terms of both eavesdropping and spoofing.

☞ Identity theft (MAC spoofing): This occurs when an attacker is able to eavesdrop on
network traffic and identify the MAC address of a computer with network privileges.

☞ Man-in-the middle attacks: This attack involves persuading a user and an access
point to believe that they are talking to each other when in fact the communication
is going through an intermediate attacking device. Wireless networks are
particularly vulnerable to such attacks.

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Wireless Network Threats

☞ Denial of service (DoS): The wireless environment lends itself to this type of
attack, because it is so easy for the attacker to direct multiple wireless
messages at the target.

☞ Network injection: A network injection attack targets wireless access points

that are exposed to non-filtered network traffic, such as routing protocol
messages or network management messages. An example of such an attack
is one in which bogus reconfiguration commands are used to affect routers
and switches to degrade network performance.

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Wireless Security Measures
☞ Principal threats are eavesdropping, altering or inserting
messages, and disruption.
☞ Countermeasures for Eavesdropping:
• Signal hiding techniques (and SSID hiding)
• Turn off SSID (Service Set Identifier) name broadcasting
• Cryptic names
• Reduce signal strengths (place away from windows and external walls)
• Directional antennas
• Encryption (standard): encrypt all wireless transmissions
☞ The use of encryption and authentication protocols is the standard
method of opposing attempts to alter or insert transmissions.

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Wireless Security Measures
☞ Signal-hiding techniques:
• Organizations can take a number of measures to make it more difficult for
an attacker to locate their wireless access points, including
Ø turning off service set identifier (SSID) broadcasting by wireless access
points;
Ø assigning cryptic names to SSIDs;
Ø reducing signal strength to the lowest level that still provides requisite
coverage; and
Ø locating wireless access points in the interior of the building, away
from windows and exterior walls.
• Greater security can be achieved by the use of directional antennas and of
signal-shielding techniques.
☞ Encryption: Encryption of all wireless transmission is effective against
eavesdropping to the extent that the encryption keys are secured.

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Securing Wireless Networks
1. Use encryption: Wireless routers are typically equipped with built-in encryption
mechanisms for router-to-router traffic.

2. Use antivirus and antispyware software, and a firewall.

3. Turn off identifier broadcasting : a wireless access point announcing its presence to
wireless-enabled computers.

4. Change the identifier on your router from the default.

5. Change your router’s pre-set password for administration. This is another prudent step.

6. Allow only specific computers to access your wireless network. A router can be configured
to only communicate with approved MAC addresses. (MAC Address Filtering -- weak
method however)
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IEEE 802.11i Wireless Security
MAC Authentication:
☞ Used to authenticate devices based on their physical MAC addresses.
☞ It is an early form of filtering.
☞ MAC authentication requires that the MAC address of a machine must
match a manually defined list of addresses.
☞ This form of authentication does not scale past a handful of devices,
because it is difficult to maintain the list of MAC addresses.
☞ Additionally, it is easy to change the MAC address of a station to match one
on the accepted list.
☞ This spoofing is trivial to perform with built-in driver tools, and it should not
be relied upon to provide security.
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IEEE 802.11i Wireless Security
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm
☞ Provides security between the wireless LAN operated as part of the 802.11 by
encrypting data.
☞ The original native security mechanism for WLAN introduced in 1999.
☞ Intended to make wireless networks as secure and private as wired networks.
☞ Ability to send packets is essentially authentication
☞ Integrity used as authentication
☞ Built into the vast majority of home wireless routers
☞ Assumes that a secret (symmetric encryption) key is shared between the access
point and clients (single shared key)
☞ It is easily crackable. IEEE declared WEP deprecated in 2004.

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 ☞ WEP offers a basically symmetrical encryption procedure to deny
unauthorized access to sensitive data by trespassers.
☞ The secret cipher key is simply distributed between access point and
adjacent stations.
☞ Uses RC4 stream cipher seeded with 24-bit initialization vector (IV) and 40-
bit key (total : 64-bit) or 26 char hexadecimal + 24-bit IV = 128-bit WEP
☞ 64 bits (40 bit key + 24 bit IV)
☞ 128 bits (104 bit key + 24 bit IV)
☞ The sending device encrypts the data with the configured cipher key. The
receiving component uses the same cipher key to decrypt. Another variant
combines WEP encryption with Shared Key Authentication.

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WEP Session Key

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How WEP works?

Integrity

Confidentiality

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WEP Process

☞ The sending station combines the configured 40-bit master key

with a 24-bit initialization vector (IV) to create a 64-bit key.
☞ The IV strengthens encryption by causing successive packets to be
encrypted with different keys, making it more difficult for a hacker
to determine the configured key.
☞ WEP does not specify how the IV is created.
☞ Some stations use a random-number generator to generate an IV
for each packet, and some start at zero and increment.
☞ RC4 algorithm used in WEP produces an infinite pseudo-random
“keystream” for encrypting data.

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WEP Process
☞ This keystream is produced using a ‘secret’ key as one of the
inputs.
☞ Once the keystream is produced, it is XOR’d with data, byte by
byte, to produce encrypted ciphertexts that are ready for
transmission.
☞ On the receiving side, the process is reversed to retrieve the data.
☞ The received ciphertext is simply XOR’d with the receiver side
keystream that was produced using the same secret key
(Symmetric), to get the original data.

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WEP Encryption and Decryption

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Data Integrity
☞ WEP performs data integrity checking for messages transmitted
between STAs and APs.
☞ WEP is designed to reject any messages that have been changed in
transit, such as by a man-in-the-middle attack.
☞ WEP data integrity is based on a simple encrypted checksum—a 32-bit
cyclic redundancy check (CRC32) computed on each payload prior to
transmission.
☞ The payload and checksum are encrypted using the RC4 key stream and
transmitted.
☞ The receiver decrypts them, recomputes the checksum on the received
payload, and compares it with the transmitted checksum.
☞ If the checksums are not the same, the transmitted data frame has been
altered in transit, and the frame is discarded.
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WEP Flaws and Vulnerabilities
☞ Most attacks against WEP encryption have been based on IV-related
vulnerabilities.
• As the IV portion of the RC4 key is sent in cleartext, Using this as an
advantage, the attacker can monitor and analyze small amount of
network traffic to recover the key
☞ WEP does not specify precisely how the IVs should be set or changed; some
products use a static, well-known IV value or reset to zero or use
sequentially increasing IV values
☞ There are less than 17 million possible IV values; on a busy WLAN, the
entire IV space may be exhausted in a few hours.
☞ When the IV is chosen randomly, which represents the best possible generic
IV selection algorithm, by the birthday paradox two IVs already have a 50%
chance of colliding after about 212 frames.
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WEP Flaws and Vulnerabilities
☞ Encrypting checksum (calculated using CRC-32) does not provide
protection against bit flipping attack.
• Reason : WEP’s RC4 Stream cipher algorithm
☞ Integrity should be provided by a cryptographic checksum rather
than a CRC. Also known as keyed hashes or message
authentication codes (MAC).
• cryptographic checksums prevent bit flipping attacks
because they are designed so that any change to the
original message results in significant and unpredictable
changes to the resulting checksum.

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IEEE 802.11 Security (Security Capabilities)

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Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2
☞ Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA in early 2003 to address serious vulnerabilities inherent in WEP,
which was the only available IEEE 802.11 security protection at that time.
☞ WPA is a subset of IEEE 802.11i that provides a solution to WEP’s major problems
☞ Two modes of operation
• Pre-shared key mode -- WEP like, shared key derived from single network passphrase
• Server mode -- uses 802.1X authentication server to authenticate/give unique keys to users
☞ Protocol fixes to WEP – increase IV size to 48 bits – TKIP - change keys every so often -- Temporal Key
Integrity Protocol – improved integrity (stop using CRC and start using MAC)
☞ WPA leverages the following core security features from IEEE 802.11i:
• IEEE 802.1X and EAP authentication
• Key generation and distribution based on the IEEE 802.11i 4-Way Handshake
• TKIP mechanisms including:
● Encapsulation and decapsulation
● Replay protection
● Message Integrity Check (MIC) (also known as Michael) integrity protection

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WPA2 Features
☞ Released in September 2004, WPA2 is the Wi-Fi Alliance’s
interoperability certification program for the complete ratified
version of IEEE 802.11i.
☞ WPA2 is backward compatible WPA.
• Any WPA2 product should be able to interoperate with a WPA
product.
• Some products may require a hardware upgrade to achieve
WPA2 compliance; older products, in general, cannot be
upgraded to WPA2.
☞ WPA2 testing validates interoperability with selected EAP methods
only, so WPA2 certification does not imply interoperability with all
possible EAP methods.
☞ WPA2 is based on the robust security network (RSN) mechanism

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WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i)
☞ WPA2: AES instead of RC4
Operates on two modes:
• Personal mode or Pre-shared Key (WPA2-PSK) – which relies on a shared passcode
for access and is usually used in home environments.
• Enterprise mode (WPA2-EAP) – as the name suggests, this is more suited to
organizational or business use.
☞ Both modes use the CCMP – which stands for Counter Mode Cipher Block Chaining
Message Authentication Code Protocol.
• CCMP protocol is based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm,
which provides message authenticity and integrity verification. CCMP is stronger and
more reliable than WPA's original Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), making it
more difficult for attackers to spot patterns.
☞ WPA2 has immunity against many types of hacker attacks:
• Man-in-the middle, Authentication forging, Replay, Key collision, Weak keys,
Packet forging, Dictionary attacks
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WEP vs WPA vs WPA2 vs WPA3

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Procedures to Improve Wireless Security
☞ Use wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS).
☞ Enable WPA-PSK
☞ Use a good passphrase (https://grc.com/password)
☞ Use WPA2 where possible.
☞ AES is more secure, use TKIP for better performance.
☞ Change your SSID every so often.
☞ Wireless network users should use or upgrade their network
to the latest security standard released.

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WPA3
☞ WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 3) is a security standard for Wi-Fi networks, developed by
the Wi-Fi Alliance (2018), latest version of the WPA standard, which was created to
improve wireless security.
☞ WPA3 has two parts:
• WPA3-Personal: Uses Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) instead of pre-
shared key (PSK)
• WPA3-Enterprise: Offers stronger authentication and link-layer encryption (uses
GCMP-256 encryption) methods
Benefits of WPA3
§ Improves the security of personal and enterprise networks
§ Provides enhanced protection against brute-force attacks
§ Provides individualized data encryption (use Near Field Communication (NFC) tags or QR
codes to allow devices on the network)
§ Makes it harder and time-consuming to crack passwords

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EAP/LEAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol)
☞ Challenge response - auth only
☞ Bolts onto other authentication mechanisms, e.g., Kerberos, RADIUS
☞ Passes authentication information onto other protocols (WEP, WAP)
☞ LEAP: Cisco implementation/modifications (security problems are possibly
serious) – Standards: EAP-MD5, EAP-TLS
☞ PEAP: RSA/Microsoft/Cisco standards for WPA/WPA2 protocols

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