Wireless Technologies: Recent Exploits and Mitigation Strategies

This report discusses about the most recent and common exploits to the security of the wireless networks. The major attacks that have occurred recently have left a major impact on the security issues of the networks. This report focusses on the attacks and the mitigation strategies of the attacks.

Running head: WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES
Wireless Technologies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note:

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Executive Summary
The wireless networks have an extremely common place in various offices and homes. They
play a major significant role in the society. This report discusses about the most recent and
common exploits to the security of the wireless networks. The major attacks that have
occurred recently have left a major impact on the security issues of the networks. This report
focusses on the attacks and the mitigation strategies of the attacks.

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................4
2 Brief Discussion on Wireless Technologies...........................................................................4
2.1 Recent Wireless Exploits.................................................................................................4
2.2 Impact of the Exploits......................................................................................................5
3 Recommendations to the Wireless Networks.........................................................................6
4 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................6
5 References...............................................................................................................................8

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1 Introduction
The term ‘wireless’ is often referred to the transmission or communication of some
form of information over some distance without the requirement of cables, wires or any other
kind of electrical conductors. The technology of wireless communication is regarded as one
of the vital means of the transmission of information or data within other devices. With the
increasing growth of wireless based technologies, there are a number of vulnerabilities that
would affect the technology. The effective management of the vulnerabilities that are in
relation with wireless technologies would need to be developed in order to mitigate the
threats (Jover & Giura, 2013).
2 Brief Discussion on Wireless Technologies
In the recent times, the technology of wireless communication has become a major
integral part for the various kinds of devices of communication. This technology would allow
the user in order to communicate in the remote areas (Wright & Cache, 2015). The main
devices that are used in the communication of wireless technologies are mobiles, GPS units,
wireless parts of computers, cordless telephones and satellite television.
2.1 Recent Wireless Exploits
The recent attacks on the wireless technologies are listed as follows:
 KRACK Attack: It is a kind of bug that had exposed a major flaw in the WPA2
protocol. The security protocol, which was used by routers, phones and computers
had been broken and thus had put every device at the verge of risks. The weakness
within the protocol was lying within the four-way handshake, which was meant to
allow new devices with a preexisting password in order to join the network. The
identified flaw provides an attacker a basic key to get a direct access to a WPA2

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network without the help of any type of password (Buchanan & Ramachandran,
2017).
 BlueBorne Attack: A security company Armis had detected an assortment of
different kinds of exploits in the Bluetooth devices that was known as the BlueBorne
attack. This kind of attack could allow the attacker to access to the device of the user
without direct access by touching the device. This attack could also allow an access to
the computers and phones along with the IoT based devices. The study conducted by
Armis has shown that there would be many more vulnerabilities that would be fully
operational and could be exploited successfully. The BlueBorne attack primarily
affects every devices that is used. This kind of vulnerability has the ability to enable
an attacker to handle the devices, spread malware and establish other connections in
order to spread the attacks (Williams, Frantsvog & Almalki, 2017).
 EvilAP Attack: The 2017 RSA Conference, which is one of the largest security
events was hacked. The sensors that were responsible for monitoring the Wi-Fi had
detected the attack. The attack had affected six people who were roaming on the floor,
which was ensured with security. In this attack, a Karma attack was used by the rogue
access point in order to spoof into sites that were known to users. The deployment of
EvilAP is made possible with the help of an active internet connection in order to pass
the attacks to other victims. When the EvilAP would be affecting the devices, then the
users would not be able to realize that their cellular devices are being hacked and
hence they would not know that their vital information were being stolen. Since the
internet traffic of the user would be passing through the EvilAP, hence it would be
possible to collect the credentials of the user, misrepresent the web pages or could
even monitor and track the online moves of the victim (Brenski, Choluj & Luckner,
2017).

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2.2 Impact of the Exploits
A large number of devices that are using the Wi-Fi technology are most likely to be
exposed to the vulnerability of these attacks. These attacks are only possible if the attacker is
within the range of the network of the victim. However, these kinds of attacks would require
the physical presence of the attacker within the network of the victim. The impact of the
KRACK, BlueBorne and EvilAP attacks are extremely dangerous. Different groups of
hackers deploy these kind of attacks in order to gain access to the vital data of the users and
harass them (Li et al., 2013). These attacks could be used by the attacker in order to decrypt
the traffic based on a Wi-Fi network. These includes passwords, credit/debit card numbers,
emails, photos, documents and many others. These attacks puts the user at a vital risk of
identifying the theft or loss of money. In many of the instances of these attacks, the hacker
might be able to inject malware, ransomware and spyware within the websites that are being
mostly visited by the user (Jiang et al., 2016).
3 Recommendations to the Wireless Networks
Based on the threats that have exploited the wireless networks, it is highly
recommended to protect and secure them in order to avoid the risks. A single level of defense
would be insufficient to mitigate the threats, hence a multilayered approach would be
necessary. All the data that would be transmitted over the wireless network could be
monitored by unauthorized users unless a proper authentication and encryption protocol is
being used over the wireless network. The encryption protocols should be chosen carefully as
all the encryption and authentication protocols are not secure (Ding et al., 2014).
4 Conclusion
Based on the above discussion on the security of the wireless networks, it can be
concluded that the wireless networks are extremely vital and hence they should be protected

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from different vulnerabilities. The recent attacks on the wireless networks have put a focus on
the lack of security within the existing wireless networks. Such attacks are a major area of
concern for the people who would be using the Wi-Fi networks. In order to ensure that the
security of the users is not compromised, the protocols of encryption within the wireless
networks should be encrypted using proper technologies. Hence, such proper measures would
be able to avoid such further exploits to the security of the wireless networks.

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5 References
Breński, K., Chołuj, M., & Luckner, M. (2017, June). Evil-AP-Mobile Man-in-the-Middle
Threat. In IFIP International Conference on Computer Information Systems and
Industrial Management (pp. 617-627). Springer, Cham.
Buchanan, C., & Ramachandran, V. (2017). Kali Linux Wireless Penetration Testing
Beginner's Guide: Master wireless testing techniques to survey and attack wireless
networks with Kali Linux, including the KRACK attack. Packt Publishing Ltd.
Ding, A. Y., Crowcroft, J., Tarkoma, S., & Flinck, H. (2014). Software defined networking
for security enhancement in wireless mobile networks. Computer Networks, 66, 94-
101.
Jiang, D., Ying, X., Han, Y., & Lv, Z. (2016). Collaborative multi-hop routing in cognitive
wireless networks. Wireless personal communications, 86(2), 901-923.
Jover, R. P., & Giura, P. (2013). How vulnerabilities in wireless networks can enable
Advanced Persistent Threats. International Journal on Information Technology
(IREIT), (1), 2.
Li, Z., Liu, Y., Li, M., Wang, J., & Cao, Z. (2013). Exploiting ubiquitous data collection for
mobile users in wireless sensor networks. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and
Distributed Systems, 24(2), 312-326.
Williams, T., Frantsvog, J., & Almalki, S. (2017). Security of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Wright, J., & Cache, J. (2015). Hacking exposed wireless: wireless security secrets &
solutions. McGraw-Hill Education Group.