Physically locating wireless intruders

Abstract

Wireless networks, specifically IEEE 802.11, are inexpensive and easy to deploy, but their signals can be detected by eavesdroppers at great distances. Even with existing and new security measures, wireless networks have a higher risk than wired nets. WIDS, Wireless Intrusion Detection System, provides an additional layer of security by combining intrusion detection with physical location determination, using directional antennas. We briefly describe WIDS and present our initial results of remote station location using inexpensive hardware.

Wireless and physical security via embedded sensor networks

“…This work provides detailed analysis of particular directional antennas and is able to pinpoint wireless intruders accurately. Our work is compatible with the use of sweeping directional antenna; and perhaps more so than what is envisioned in [2] as the SNBENCH can address and direct the servos that control antenna movement explicitly, enabling on-demand target tracking. In particular, we envision either making the directionality of the wireless sensors explicit to be controlled within the service logic, or mounting the wireless antennae to the pan-tilt-zoom camera network that sweeps the perimeter of our SN testbed.…”

“…The work in [2] offers an architecture for a Wireless Intrusion Detection System that breaks from the norm slightly, in so far as it establishes wireless sensors that form a perimeter around an access point (or area) to be protected and uses directional antennae (opposed to the typical, omni-directional antenna found on WAPs) that would sweep the region to better pin-point the location of a particular wireless user. This work provides detailed analysis of particular directional antennas and is able to pinpoint wireless intruders accurately.…”

A Survey on Impersonation Attack in Wireless Networks

“…Nevertheless, this approach is limited in that the IDS make a distinction between devices based only on the manufacturer's identification [7].…”

Virtualization and Programming Support for Video Sensor Networks with Application to Wireless and Physical Security

“…The Opcode APDeauth() takes as arguments a WifiResponder that will send a flood of deauthenticate messages to a particular MAC address (the second argument) from a particular MAC address (the third argument). 2 An actuator is nearly identical to a Sensor in its implementation within snBench. The Handler for WifiResponder invokes the remote common gateway interface (CGI) script to initiate the deauthenticate "attack" against the specified host.…”

“…Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems: Many approaches to derive location from multiple sensors' Signal Strength Information (SSI) of RF transmissions have been undertaken, including addressing issues of transmission reflection, diffraction and interference (e.g., [4], [15]). The WIDS architecture detailed in [2] provides detailed analysis of specific directional antennas (as opposed to the typical, omni-directional antennas) to form a sweeping perimeter around an access point and is able to accurately pinpoint wireless intruders. Not only would our work be compatible with the use of sweeping directional antenna, snBench could likely direct the servos that control antenna movement explicitly within the security logic (easing future changes).…”