Information Security in Wireless Local Area Networks - Essay Example

?Information Security in Wireless Local Area Networks Faculty Rapid growth of wireless communication has become a common in the enterprises. Now wireless local area networks (WLANs) applications are installed easier than earlier applications. Thesis statement is about the information security concerns, designing the protocols, and implementation of the paramount. Data confidentiality, availability, and integrity are key objectives of the information security as stated in the current paper. This paper deals with the major threats to the WLANs such as the active and passive probing by the hackers. Man in the Middle (MitM) is a real information security concern for the Wireless Local Area Networks. In the MitM attack, address of the proxy server changes with any fake address and hacks the wireless network in the form of traffic tunnelling, proxy attack, DNS poisoning, and rout mangling. This paper also outlined the solution of the major information security issues through the development of the techniques and protocols. Alloy model is the core focus in this paper, which contains the written code. Execution of this code is verified whether it met the expected function. Development of these techniques and protocols is aimed to ensure the data integrity and security. C# is the core programming language for the client side and PHP programming is used for the server side. Model checking involved the testing of the written features of the application in terms of verification of the descriptions. Static analysis, deductive verification, dynamic analysis and software model checking are the best examples of technology, which use the theorem proving for the validity of verification. Information Security in Wireless Local Area Networks Summary and Conclusion Introductory chapter of thesis narrates the aims and objectives of the work, and describes the structure of the thesis. This early chapter is focused on the Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), which is the biggest segment in the Wireless products’ market. Wireless Local Area Networks facilitates the communication and computing in spatial domains including the enterprises, hospitals, offices and campuses. In these environments, WLAN expands and complements the coverage in the existing networks. There are three main objectives behind the information security for the wireless networks such as the data integrity, confidentiality, and availability. Data Integrity; It is ensured that no data or information has been modified. Confidentiality; It is ensured that nobody other than receiver can see or read the information. Availability; It ensures the availability of information needed at any time. The second chapter of this thesis work has been on the history and background of the study. This chapter describes the ways of the wireless detection using when data packets pass through the Network Interface Card (NIC). Managed and “rfmon” modes of data transferring through NIC are stated. The function of the Kismet has been specified when data packets pass through the NIC and saved in the file named as “pcap”. Beacon frame is most wanted for the sniffer that contains the information about sniffing operation. Data sending and receiving over the WLANs need the connection with Access Points. The requirements of the encryption protocol for the data encryption of the beacon frame are also realized in this part of the thesis. A hacker attacks the wireless network and selects a wireless channel from where it attacks the network. Hacker uses the two probing techniques such as active and passive. NetStumbler tools works as active probing and receives the Service Set Identifies (SSID) and host information. An active probe detects the access points in scope of hackers’ transmission. Passive Probing technique is used to drop the data packets over a channel and neither data receiver nor the data sender can detect the attacker’s presence. Surveillance is a passive technique that a hacker uses to capture the data traffic over a network. Attacker gets the information of IP and Medium Access Control (MAC) by sniffing the Network Interface Card (NIC) in order to get the SSID. Attacker saves the information. In a passive attack, the attacker does not use the system resources and threatens the data confidentiality. Sending the username and password over the wireless network is the major vulnerability for the computer systems in these days. In Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, the provided services are interrupted. However, this type of attack is common these days and can be managed by using the filter as a sniffer on the network before reaching the stream of information to the site of the web server. Another spoofing attack Impersonation is also made part of this paper. Man in the Middle (MitM) is another type of the security threat for the wireless networks. Man in the Middle establishes the two connections, one between the MitM and client and another one between receiver and Mitm. A Rouge access point is put in the domain of the wireless station that results into the getting the important and sensitive information as exchanging the secret keys on the request of authentication. In the MitM, an attacker gets the important information and inserts the incorrect or fake information. Active attack is used to hijack the secured wireless network systems. Trojan, viruses, and worms are introduced in the system through the active attacks. This type of the attack alters or steals the crucial information. MANET routing is highly impacted by the active attacks where a wormhole link established, and two attackers use this high channel. Wireless networks are also attacked by MitM as routing his own proxy server to the client instead of the proxy of a server, uses the methods of hacking in the form of traffic tunnelling, proxy attack, DNS poisoning, and rout mangling. Solution of the information security over the wireless network requires the development of security protocols. Third Chapter of this study has been focused on the literature review, and described the correlation between information security and techniques developed. With an increase of challenges from hackers, the importance of the information security techniques is highly valued. However, the need for solution of the obstructing Man in the Middle for communication over WLANs is highly emphasized. Physical media in the form of multichannel has been considered more secure as it provided the changed MAC address appeared to be from two hosts. Actually, this MAC address has been for the single host. Authentication techniques as proposed in this work are aimed to ensure the equality of data between a server and client. Multichannel protocol ensures the data security from Man in the Middle threat. Information security issues discussed in earlier chapter led to develop the Alloy Analyser for data transmission over the multichannel of WLANs. Different aspects of modelling the data transmission without the active and passive MitM have been analysed in both cases; without decryption and encryption techniques. A model checking technique was designed in the SPIN, CHESS and Blast languages. Use of Alloy has been made for analysis and verification of the model. Alloy analyser verifies and validates the written logic. Alloy model has been useful for detection of MitM for the online transactions by ATMs. Codes for the data confidentiality, data integrity and authenticity have been also included in this thesis paper. Use of Alloy analyser in the past work also showed the importance of Alloy model. In the next section of this chapter, the Alloy models for the information security, and verification has been presented. This model also ensured the data integrity, data availability and data confidentiality. In the sixth chapter of the thesis, work function of the developed program has been verified to ensure that whether it worked accordingly or not. The core theme of this chapter lies in the designing, implementation and also performance of the security protocol. On the client side the programming language CSharp is utilized and PHP language for the server side. Final part of the paper related with the technique of a Theorem prover for the proofs of the automatic functioning of a theorem. Human intervention has been important for the applications of theorem technique. References Naamany, A., Shidhani , A., and Bourdoucen, H. (2006). “IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Security Overview”, IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, Vol.6 No.5B. Read More