Authentication problems and access optimization to information wifi networks

Abstract

Ensuring security presents a thorny problem because communication in a wireless network uses a shared medium without the benefit of a physical security perimeter. To address this problem wireless security protocols use cryptographic techniques to protect the network but the results have not always been successful. Serious flaws have been discovered in the design, implementation and operation of widely deployed wireless security protocols and attacks developed to exploit these flaws. Our investigation adopts the viewpoint of a hostile adversary to identify and exploit vulnerabilities that remain in wireless security protocols. Purpose-written software tools have been created to facilitate the investigation, conduct attacks and assist in the identification of the underlying causes of the security flaws. Remedial measures are then proposed, implemented and evaluated for the most serious threats. This method is applied to an investigation of the security problems present in both current Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems and next-generation wireless mesh networks.