Improved security in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs
Fahad Samad, Waqar Mahmood, Arshad Ali, Umar Kalim · 2006
Attempts such as the standard 802.11i, in the domain of wireless communication, have been successful in securing the data-exchange procedures between hosts. However the secure exchange of management frames is yet to be addressed. In this paper we propose a solution to address the vulnerabilities that exist in the exchange of management frames (as presented by the IEEE 802.11 standards). We employ the simplisic approach of Diffe-Hellman's algorithms to devise an algorithm for authentication and integrity checks and consequently prevent threats such as active eavesdropping, session hijacking. MitM and DoS attacks. We further verify our results by presenting a performance analysis on our simulation results. This solution provides a reliable platform for a secure session of communication between two or more hosts using the 802.11 standard. No change in standard is required.