Content area
Full Text
Abstract: There is a geometric growth in the manufacturing and sales of wireless network devices presently. This growth is not connected with the advantages ushered in by wireless network e.g user mobility, the flexibility of the network, enable network connection for different kinds of devices, increased productivity, etc. However, because the wireless network is broadcast in nature, it has numerous security challenges, if these security challenges are not addressed, different attacks can be lunged against the network such as theft of data, unauthorized access to the network, denial of service, etc. These security challenges are caused majorly by the body implementing the data confidentiality protocol and the wireless device users. Nowadays, almost all wireless access points (APs) are secured with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) because hitherto WPA2 is known to provide the highest form of security to wireless local area network (WLAN). Consequently, we investigated various wireless network security protocols, focusing more on WPA2 since it is the latest amongst the protocols. Real-time dictionary attack against WPA2 was carried out to prove the existence of flaws in the protocol. Hence, countermeasures were proposed to forestall these flaws in the system and; if the suggested measures are implemented, it will lead to the development of a more secure wireless network.
Keywords: Network Security, Security Protocols, Wireless Network, WPA2, Wi-Fi, Network Attacks
I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless Network is becoming more popular every day. This is a function of the advantages associated with it. Such advantages include ease of network configuration and reconfiguration, increased accessibility to information resources [1], mobility support and roaming which grant the users "anytime," anywhere access to network [2]. Wireless network security is more concentrated and complex than security of wired networks because wireless signal is broadcast in nature, making it possible for anyone within the range of a wireless device to intercept the packets sent without interrupting the flow of data between the wireless device and the access point [2]. Some of the security threats in Wireless Network are: Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack, Denial of service attack, sniffing, rogue access point, replay attack, etc. With the help of a wireless device and some applications, these attackers can gain access to the wireless network unlike the wired equivalent. This is mostly because wireless network...