IEEE 802.11 WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) Concepts and Vulnerability
Shivaputrappa Vibhuti · 2005
The wireless networking is becoming very popular among large number of internet users. Because of the popularity of the wireless networking technology, large number of wireless networking products and protocols are available for the home and business use. Prior to the introduction of 802.11 standard by IEEE, many other technologies were developed that used various forms of spectrum hopping to facilitate wireless data transfer. Wireless transmissions are available to authorized users and also to the unauthorized users(hackers). The IEEE802.11 standard offers some level of protection. This protection, known as the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol, defines a set of instructions and rules by which wireless data can be transmitted over the airwaves with some amount of security. One of the objectives of WEP is to provide data privacy equivalent to the level of wired network. However, WEP protocol has many weaknesses. This paper discusses about concepts and weaknesses of WEP protocol. This paper also lists some of the available solutions for the WEP vulnerability.