SEMINAR

ON WIRELESS LAN SECURITY

SEMINAR CO-ORDINATOR
Mr. Vijay Agarwal
Mr. Deepak Balana

SUBMITTED BY
ISHANT GUPTA
(EC/06/136)IV YR. ECE

http://powerpointpresentationon.blogspot.co

Introduction
Need of WLAN
Advantages and Applications of WLAN
WLAN security

 Wireless LANs based on the 802.11 standard are the

most likely candidate to become widely prevalent in
corporate environments.
Current 802.11b products operate at 2.4GHz, and
deliver up to 11Mbps of bandwidth
An upcoming version called 802.11a moves to a higher
frequency range, and promises significantly faster
speeds.
This provides low cost, combined with strong
performance and ease of deployment
Many departments and individuals already use 802.11b,
at home or at work
But security management administrators do not yet
recognize wireless LANs as an approved technology.

 A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a flexible data communication system

implemented as an extension to a wired LAN within a building or
campus using electro magnetic waves.
Wireless LAN provides a new layer of flexibility and serves to
environments and to users that cannot serves by the traditional
LAN.
Thus, WLANs combine data connectivity with user mobility.

 Over the past few years, wired LANs have lost their
need and interest to wireless LAN s
In Wiring LANs, the roving users can be in direct
two-way contact with the full resources of the
enterprises information systems.
Similarly, situation in which people have to move
around to various locations to perform their work
are candidates for wireless LANs.
Wireless LANs can also move to higher power
plateaus, which will extend their distances from
hundreds of feet to several tens of thousands of
feet.

 In wireless LANs the users or clients access the

data or information from the server through the
Access Point.
The data is to be transferred in the form of
Microwaves or Spread Spectrum or Infrared
technique.
SPREAD SPECTRUM TECHNIQUE
Most wireless LAN systems use spread-spectrum
technology
It provides secure , reliable and efficient.

2. INFRARED TECHNOLOGY
Infrared (IR) systems use very high frequencies, just below
visible light in the electromagnetic spectrum, to carry data.
Like light , IR cannot penetrate opaque objects .

3.MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY

Microwave WLANs use the frequencies in the 18 GHz to 24 GHz

range to encapsulate and transfer the LAN data packets .
Long distance microwave towers can send their waves to
around 30 miles, depending upon the size of the tower.

Roaming
Speed
Cost
Flexibility
Fast setup
Efficient
Reliable

 If any client in the wireless LAN want to

communicate with other clients or with
the server the connection must be
established . They are three types of
connections: 1. ONE - TO - ONE OPERATIONS
2. ONE -TO - MANY OPERATIONS
3. MANY - TO - MANY OPERATIONS

 Healthcare
The WLAN technology can help healthcare professionals such as:
1. Keep patient records current and accessible.
2. Maintain network connectivity for mobile, roaming staff.
3.Link departmental wired LANs in separate buildings to central
facilities.

Education

WLAN can help educators and administrators meet a variety of

education such as:
1.Low-cost campus area networks for access to local and
Internet services.
2.Network access to roaming students.

 Offices
With WLAN, people can done their work done and make the
office infrastructure more efficient such as:
1.Reliable connectivity for individual workers and whole
workgroups to networked applications and data from any office
location.
2.Sales and services persons spend almost all their time out of
the office. It is possible to connect them with officers.

 WLAN security Is the process of preventing unauthorized

access or damage to computers (damage data or damage
application) using wireless network .
WLAN vulnerabilities:
1- Weak device only authentication
Client device are authenticated , user arent authenticated
2- Weak data encryption
3- No message integrity
WLAN threats
1- Unstructured threats :
- It happened by hackers who arent technical , they use
simple tools to steal the passwords.

2- Structured threats:
It happened by hackers who are more technical
- They can know the network vulnerabilities then they can
provide a script or a code or a program to use it in accessing
to the network.
3- External threats:
- It may be happened by a person or organized group from
the outside of the network , they arent authorized to access
to the network.
4- Internal threats :
- It happened by a person who has the permission and
authorized to access to the network from the internal employees
, he can damage the network.

Spy
To gather information isnt allowed to be known
Access
- Unauthorized person access to the network ( doesnt have
any account ), he can access by guessing the password or
he know that the password is weak.

DOS (Denial Of Service)

- Disable or corrupts wireless network.
- The more danger and is difficult to prevent.

1-Provide a process to audit existing wireless security.

2- Provide a general frame work for implementing security.
3- Define behavior that is allowed and that isnt allowed .
4- Help determine which tools are needed for the
organization.
5- Help communication among a group of key decision
makers and define responsibilities of users and
administrators.
6- Define a process for handling wireless breaches.
7- Create a basic for legal action

 On a wired network, authentication is implicitly provided by the

physical cable from the PC to the switch.
Authentication is the process to ensure that stations attempting to
associate with the network (AP) are allowed to do so.
802.11 specifies two types of authentication:
Open-system
Shared-key (makes use of WEP)

Open System Authentication

The following steps occur when two devices use Open System
Authentication:
The station sends an authentication request to the access point.
The access point authenticates the station.
The station associates with the access point and joins the network.
The process is illustrated below.

2- Shared key authentication:

Require the client and the access point to have the same WEP
key.
Access Point (AP) using shared key authenticated send a
challenge text packet to the client .
If client has the wrong key or no key , it will fail (client fail)

 - WEP ( Wired Equivalent Privacy )

- IEEE 802.11 standard include WEP ( Wired Equivalent Privacy ) to
protect authorized user of WLAN from attack .
It Is a technology which encrypt the traffic on your network.
When using WEP , both the wireless client and the access point must
have a matching WEP key.
WEP keys :
First scheme : Set of up to four default key are shared by all station , so
when the keys are distributed over the stations , it is easy to be known
by unauthorized person .
Second scheme :
Each client establish a key mapping relationship with other station.
This is more secure

 WPA has two modes :

1- Personal :
For small installation ( single password).
2- Enterprise :
For large installation ( username , password).
End- to End Encryption
Mean that all conversation is encrypted from your PC to the service or
the station you talking to.
SSL ( Secure Socket Layer) The most common , it makes private
conversation.

WLAN is widely used in various corporates and

can be made secured and reliable by using
various security techniques available.