Abstract

SARMIENTO, Oscar P.; GUERRERO, Fabio G.  and  REY ARGOTE, David. Basic security measures for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Ing. Investig. [online]. 2008, vol.28, n.2, pp.89-96. ISSN 0120-5609.

This article presents a tutorial/discussion of three commonly-used IEEE 802.11 wireless network security standards: WEP, WPA and WPA2. A detailed analysis of the RC4 algorithm supporting WEP is presented, including its vulnerabilities. The WPA and WPA2 encryption protocols’ most relevant aspects and technical characteristics are reviewed for a comparative analysis of the three standards in terms of the security they provide. Special attention has been paid to WEP encryption by using an educational simulation tool written in C++ Builder for facilitating the understanding of this protocol at academic level. Two practical cases of wireless security configurations using Cisco networking equipment are also presented: configuring and enabling WPA-Personal and WPA2-Personal (these being security options used by TKIP and AES, respectively).

Keywords : 802.11i; 802.1x; CCMP; TKIP; WEP; WLAN; WPA; WPA2.

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