Study Of WLAN Attack Technology

With the rapid development of Internet, computer network communication technology has changed from the traditional wired networks to wireless network. WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), as one of the wireless networks, has created a free and rich web space which enables people to enjoy the internet. However, transmitting through the air, the radio wave-based information carrier could be picked up whenever there’s the coverage of the site. Hence a malicious attacker may take it as an opportunity to attack the whole network. It is under this circumstance that the IEEE802.11organization and Wi-Fi Alliance launched the WLAN authentication and encryption standard WEP and WPA/WAP2. This paper mainly summarizes the research of common WLAN encryption standard, analyses the shortcomings and loopholes of WEP and WPA/WAP2-PSK (Pre-Shared Key); summarizes the common ways to attack these loopholes and techniques; means for research, In the mean time, the paper has designed and development a set of WLAN attacking tools, in the hope of providing better support for the work of WLAN security. Specific content is as follow:1) Summarizes and analyzes the technical features and protocol standard of WLAN and IEEE802.11organization of the series IEEE802.11. Summarize the common WLAN topology and provide a comparison between WLAN and traditional wired LAN. Lay the theoretical foundation for design of the WLAN attacking tools.2) Summarizes and analyzes the common WLAN security technology; WEP access authentication and encryption process, and summarizes attacking technology based on its loopholes and these vulnerabilities. Analyse of WPA/WAP2-PSK security technology certification and access to PSK mode, and summarizes the common attack means and method.3) By stating the security risks of the WEP and WPA/WAP2-PSK, the paper has designed a set of WLAN attacking tools, and has provided a detailed description of the designing idea; structure and specific mode details of the attacking tool and has lay the foundation for the development of the tools.4) A set of attacking tool, on the basis of the description and design, using Windows XP operating system and Microsoft Visual C++6.0as its platform, has been created. WLAN attack tools prototype, and designs a set of attack tools, the tool via the wireless network adapter settings to monitor mode, to achieve data packet capture. Then, the captured data packets for analysis and filtering, acquire information related to the network (such as the AP MAC address, SSID, channels etc.). Finally, on calculating the obtained data, the tool captured access to the user’s encryption key.5) At last, compare the designed attacking tools with other attack methods, thus reveals its advantages and disadvantages, for the betterment of attacking tools.6) Summarizes the basic work of the paper; looks into the domestic and international research developments and prospects for the further development of the WLAN attack tools.The research this paper can be applied in the detection and analysis of the safety and availability of WLAN environment thus provides technical guarantee and support for safe WLAN. In addition, the design is based on Windows graphical interface, making the application more efficient and convenient.