WIFI BASICS

THE WIFI WORLD

1. WiFi is “the network” for the majority of

users
2. Wireless is a potential root-cause in the
majority of all end-user complaints and calls
3. The majority of enterprise data, assets and IP
will travel over WiFi

During a 20 to 30 minute walk in the CBD we found

with AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer…..

• 534 Access points • 2487 Wireless clients

- Broad casting 384 SSID’s - 1603 Unassociated
- 884 Associated
The problem is growing….
• 384 SSID’s •A recent
884Gartner
Associated
report states that in 2012 75% of
- 100 Open networks with no client
- connections will be made
432 connected withover
no wireless
connections
encryption encryption
- 36 WEP protected networks - 295 connected with weak
- 162 WPA protected networks encryption
- 88 WPA2 protected networks - 157 with good security

Wi-Fi® chipset sales grew 26 percent to 387 million in 2008

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 WIRELESS
WIRELESS CHANNELS ANDFREQUENCIES
CHANNELS AND FREQUENCIES

• 2.5GHz band: 802.11b/g

• 5GHz band: 802.11a/n

• Japan (MKK), Canada (ISC), USA (FCC), Taiwan (PDT), Singapore (IDA)
• eg, Israel allows channels 5-13 outdoors and 1-3 indoors

RADIO WAVE BEHAVIOR

WIRELESS AUTHENTICATION AND

ASSOCIATION PROCESS
• IEEE 802.11 State Machine

- State 1: Unauthenticated, Unassociated

- State 2: Authenticated, Unassociated
- State 3: Authenticated, Associated

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 WIFI TRAFFIC LIGHT
(PHYSICAL/VIRTUAL CARRIER SENSE)

WIFI SECURITY THREATS

• Accidental Association

• Ad Hoc Networks

• MAC Spoofing

• Man-in-the-middle Attacks

• DOS Attack

THANK YOU