Let numbers tell the tale

Abstract

Motivated by the recent push towards adopting new standards and the discovery of numerous vulnerabilities in both new and old protocols, this paper analyzes the security of Wi-Fi networks. Our analysis is based on publicly available datasets and our own survey covering 250,137 networks across four countries in three continents. We present several key insights, including the continued use of outdated security configurations and vulnerable protocols, the adoption rates of modern protocols, the increasing presence of mesh networks as part of smart city infrastructure, and the vast differences depending on the surveyed geographic region and frequency spectrum. Additionally, we identify and improve upon shortcomings in previous surveys, and recommend best practices for future surveying. In summary, our work provides a more finegrained understanding on Wi-Fi network security in the real-world. Finally, we publish our tools used for extracting security statistics, and make all anonymized datasets available to other researchers. CCS CONCEPTS• Networks → Mobile and wireless security.

On the Robustness of Wi-Fi Deauthentication Countermeasures

“…However, not all vendors and operating systems have yet implemented support; for example, to date, there is no support for MFP in FreeBSD and Linux drivers such as Realtek. From recent surveys in October and December 2021, 4.84% of encrypted networks supported MFP [29]. Interestingly, merely 0.01% of encrypted networks made its usage mandatory (i.e., MFP Capable and Required), a notable observation since its usage became mandatory in modern specifications such as WPA3.…”

“…While its mandatory usage remains low, for example, due to the desire for backward compatibility, its general adoption rate is steadily growing over time. It is expected to grow even further with the adoption of WPA3 and Wi-Fi 6 [29].…”

“…However, to enable beacon protection, the hardware (and/or firmware) of a client's network card needs to be updated to support it. Recent surveys found none of the APs supported protected beacon frames (i.e., none of the beacon frames included a Management MIC Element) [29]. Until its adoption grows, which is expected to be slow given the adoption of new Wi-Fi standards [29], clients remain at risk to beacon manipulations and the deauthentication attacks presented in the remainder of this section.…”

“…The Wi-Fi Alliance made MFP mandatory in the recently released WPA3 security specification [2,12]. Furthermore, from recent surveys in late 2021, 4.84% of the encrypted networks now support MFP, an adoption rate that has been growing in recent years [29] and is expected to increase further.…”

Towards rapid prototyping for wi-fi security research

“…It includes power management features such as Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery (U-APSD), allowing a client to enter sleep mode and wake up at an unscheduled time using a Power Save (PS) polling procedure. In a PS-polling procedure ( Surveys conducted in October 2020 indicate the amendment is supported by over 98% of APs [13]. Furthermore, we conducted our own survey in September 2021 to measure the support rate among client stations by monitoring for QoS and power-management frames.…”