Wireless Network Privacy

Abstract

With the increasing interest in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, more sensitive data than ever is being transmitted over wireless links. In this thesis, the impact of this trend on the privacy of wireless network users is investigated. More specifically, existing attacks on wireless networks that are still practically viable today are demonstrated, and new attacks on protocols that are considered secure are explored. These matters are handled respectively in a case study and a feasibility study. For the case study, numerous experiments were conducted to test the practicability of existing attacks, and to estimate the security of different protocols. The feasibility study resulted in a new attack on Apple devices that can be performed in context of WPA-Enterprise authentication. Finally, in both studies, mitigation techniques are discussed that users can implement in order to protect their privacy.