Security Fundamentals
WLAN vulnerabilities

WLANs are vulnerable to specialized attacks. Many of these attacks exploit technology weaknesses since 802.11 WLAN security is relatively new. There are also many configuration weaknesses since some companies are not using the security features of WLANs on all their equipment. Many devices are shipped with default administrator passwords. Finally, there are policy weaknesses. When a company does not have a clear wireless policy on wireless usage, employees may set up their own APs. An employee setup AP is known as a rogue AP, which is rarely secure.

There are people eager, willing, and qualified to take advantage of WLAN vulnerabilities. They are constantly trying to discover and exploit new vulnerabilities. Numerous papers have been written on the topic of 802.11 security. The following major vulnerabilities are summarized:

  • Weak device-only authentication - Client devices are authenticated. Users are not authenticated.
  • Weak data encryption - Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) has been proven ineffective as a means to encrypt data.
  • No message integrity – The Integrity Check Value (ICV) has been proven ineffective as a means of ensuring message integrity.

802.11 security vulnerabilities can be a barrier to enterprise WLAN deployment. To address these vulnerabilities, Cisco has developed the Cisco Wireless Security Suite to provide robust enhancements to WEP encryption and centralized, user-based authentication.

In this section, numerous activities demonstrate the multiple methods utilized in configuring Cisco wireless security.


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