Kabul University

Computer Science Faculty

Information Technology Department

Thesis/Final Project Proposal

Research Title: Wireless LAN Network Attacks & Mitigation

a) Supervisor Personal Details:

Name Last Name Educational degree Academic Ranking

Sebghatullah Aslamzai Master Pohandoy

Phone# +93(0) 744684970

E-mail: [email protected] & [email protected]

b) Student(s) Personal Details:

First Name Mohammad Juma Specialized Field IT

last name Najafi Educational Year 2023

Father name Nader Ali Start date of Project 2023/3/April

Information
Department End date of Project 2023/30/Oct
Technology

Current Semester 7th Semester Project Duration 2 Semesters

Phone# +93(0)765856946 & +93(0)794800344

E-mail: [email protected]

1) Introduction:

Wireless Local Area Networks are critical component of enterprise networks. Which
enable employee to work remotely and access corporate resources form anywhere Wireless
Local Area Networks (WLAN) have become an essential part of modern organization,
allowing employees to connect to the internet and access critical business application from
anywhere within the premise. However, these networks are also vulnerable to security
threats that can accommodation sensitive data and harm the organization’s reputation.
Therefore, it is also essential for organization to implement effective mitigation strategies to
ensure the security of their wireless networks.

1
 In everywhere wired security systems are not a workable, wireless security devices are
the most first-rated choice for an attacker to adjustment, now, security is an essential part for
wireless local area network(WLAN). Over the past decade, IEEE 802.11i offers strong
authentication and encryption possibilities for various enterprises that have adopted this new
technology to protect their Wi-Fi (Umesh et al., 2016),(A et al., 2017).
Wireless LAN attacks can be carried everyplace. It is necessary to realize the facts of
different attacks on wireless groundwork to set up appropriate protection strategies, in
addition, the hackers attack on wireless LAN to collect the sensitive data by introducing a
misbehaving work into the Wireless LAN coverage area. The misbehaving Point can be
designed as an actual Wireless Access Point (WAP) because of several wireless clients are
connected directly to the network with the best signal strength. Additionally, the users might
be “tricked” to connect with the misbehaving work accidentally. When a user is associated,
all the communication may be observed the hacker through the network (Singh, 2010)
Nowadays Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) attacks are becoming increasingly
popular on individual networks and corporation networks that relies on wireless network
which connect to the internet. WLAN attacks can be initiated when hackers want to get
unauthorized access to the network for stealing sensitive information or interrupt the
network’s operation.
WLAN attacks are a serious and critical problem to the organization and individuals that
rely on wireless network for connecting to the internet. For preventing form attacks on
WALN organizations have to implement best strategies for protecting their wireless network
and reduce the risk of a successful WLAN attacks.

2) Problem Statement:

Wireless LAN networks are becoming increasingly popular because of their availability
and flexibility, this kind of network use radio waves for carrying data, which can be interrupt be
attackers who are within the range of the network, moreover, wireless networks have a large
number of attack surface than compared wired networks, as they are approachable form outside
of the organization’s physical perimeter.
Nowadays organization are facing increasing security threats to their wireless networks.
Which may result in financial losses and reputational damage. Hackers can take the advantage
of vulnerabilities in wireless network to get unauthorized access to steal sensitive information
and begin malware attacks. For mitigating these threats, organization have to implement
effective security or strategies. Which requires a multi-layered approach that includes network
segmentation, strong authentication mechanisms, network segmentation, regularly updates,
security audits, employee education, penetration testing, access control policies, network
monitoring, intrusion detection, prevention systems and incident response planning.

3) Significance of Research:

Local Area Networks (WLANs) have become a basic part of modern-day homes and
businesses. Though, with the accessibility of wireless technology comes the risk of security
threats. Attackers can make the best use of vulnerabilities in WLANs to obtain access for getting
the sensitive information, interrupt network operations and so on. The most common attack
vectors in WLANs include wireless sniffing, man-in-the-middle attacks, rogue access points and
denial-of-service attacks.

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 WLANs are defenseless to a wide range of security threats that can compromise the
confidentiality, availability of data & integrity. Organizations should implement a multi-layered
approach to security that includes software updates, access control policies, data rate limiting
techniques, encryption protocols and traffic filtering. By taking these measures, organizations
can mitigate the risks associated with WLANs and ensure the security of their data & networks.

4) Research Objectives:

1. Main Objective
 To attacks on Wireless Local Area Networks.
2. Sub Objectives
 To fine different kind of attacks on LAN Networks.
 To decrease attacks on Wireless LAN.
 To enforce strong password policies and Access Control Lists(ACLs).

5) Research Questions:

1- Main Question:
 What are the most common attacks on Wireless LAN?
2- Sub Questions (Minimum 1 and maximum 4)
 What are the best way for securing wireless LAN?
 How can they be mitigated?

6) Literature Review:

Wireless communication brought several benefits to our society. Improving of techno-

logy has made this communication possible by the help of 4G, LTE-A, 5G & so on, currently,
Machine to Machine (M2M) communication has been a favorite area of research, wireless
technology network represent the natural union between connectivity and miniaturization
(Asam et al., 2019)
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have many possible worrying threats. The
security issues which effect on the WLANs are the various attacks including Denial-of-Service
(DoS) & mis-configured Wireless Access Point (WAP). For protecting & detecting these
possible threats, an intrusion detection & prevention system should be sued by the wireless
networks. In addition, the intrusion detection system solution is so important for the
organizations which do not have a WALN due to the dangerous wireless threats.
WLANs are giving the opportunity to their users for establishing a wireless
communication within a range of 100 meters. WLANs are dependent on IEEE 802.11 and
they encompass many security defects. Sometime WLANs can usually operate in different
modes, either in infrastructure WLAN and ad-hoc mode or in infrastructure-based mode, or they
can even function as an independent WLAN. Today, wired and wireless networks have
been working together and a smooth connection was demonstrated between them.(Technology
& Selangor, 2017)
One of the most type of attacks which discovered on wireless LAN is Denial-of-Service
(DoS) attacks, this attack can target all 7 layers of OSI model form physical layer up to
application layer. The complicated part of DoS attack is detection because the traffic type seems
logical. (Haider et al., n.d.)

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 Wireless communication plays an obvious role in human’s daily activities and life.
Almost all digital devices adopt at least one wireless technology. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee,
NFC and UWB are different short-range communication technologies which help setting up
connectivity between two or more devices. Among these technologies, Wi-Fi standard is the
earliest and most common technique it is not only for personal & home usages but also needs
for business & organizations (Azer, 2018). The most target of wireless attacks is persona
WLANS, which depend on pre-shared key(PSK) cryptography. Other target of attack is
enterprise WLANs which depend on digital certificates for devices validation, another attacks
can be penetrate both of them WLAN security modes; enterprise & personal. The most & the
latest secure 4-way handshake protocol for wireless security that comply with 802.11i. wireless
LAN users are susceptible to different types of wireless attacks (A. Kavianpour and M. C.
Anderson, 2017).
Denial of attacks has many types of attacks here I want to mention some kind of those
attacks, the most problematic is Request to Send(RTS). In this attack, the attacker on purpose
sends RTS control frame to Access Point(AP) or receiver keeping the AP which AP should be
unavailable for the other nodes. Cooperative communication has two parts, relay selection &
data forwarding. In failed transmission relaying selection is beneficial. The result is that
cooperative network performed better in term of throughput in case of one or more malicious
rely nodes. (Jamal et al., n.d.)

7) Research Methodology:

Comparative analysis is a method that compares two or more objects or systems to

identify similarities and differences, in the first step I want to collect the data so use from Case
studies that involve analyzing a specific fact or situation in detail. Also case studies can be used
to examine the causes and effects of attacks on wireless LANs and the measures taken to
prevent future attacks. And next step I have to analyze it I will have used qualitative methods to
identifying relationship in topics. when I have identified different types of attacks on wireless
LAN and then I will have analyzed how they work? And assessing their impact on the network.

This thesis goal is to conduct a comparative analysis between different kind of attacks on
Wireless LAN more focus one simulation which involves creating a virtual environment to
recreate real-world scenarios. I use form Simulations environment because how attackers
attacks on Wireless LAN and demonstrate their effectiveness on different security measures.

8) Expected Outcomes:

The primary outcome of my research is how to attacks on Wireless LAN that cause
decreased security, which can be achieved through the implementation of strong authentication
measures, data encryption, and access controls.
And then I will have demonstrated that how an attacker attacks on Wireless LAN and the
how we will be able to decrease those attacks, there are numerous benefits to implementing
measures to decrease attacks on wireless LANs. These benefits include increased security,
reduced risk of data breaches, improved compliance, enhanced reputation, reduced downtime,
improved network performance, increased productivity, cost reduction, and improved employee
awareness and preparedness. Organizations that take steps to mitigate attacks on their wireless
LANs can gather these benefits and protect themselves against potential security threats.

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9) Work Plan:

Semester7:
Weeks
Activities
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Topic selection

Submitting proposal

Literature Review

Problem and Objectives

Definition

Work report

Report review (by

committee)

Semester8:
Weeks
Activities
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Methodology

Project Design

Implementation/analysis

Result

Pre Defense

Evaluation

Conclusion/ Outcome

Project Report

10) References:

1. A, A. D., Kumar, A., & Sethumadhavan, M. (2017). ScienceDirect ScienceDirect

Wireless Security Auditing : Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies. Procedia
Computer Science, 115, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.09.153
2. Asam, M., Jamal, T., & Ajaz, A. (2019). Challenges in Wireless Body Area Network.
10(11), 336–341.
3. Azer, M. A. (2018). Enterprise WLAN Security Flaws. 1–8.

5
4. Bichsel, J. (2015). IT Service Delivery in Higher Education : Current Methods and
Future Directions. 35.
5. Haider, A. Z., Ullah, K., & Jamal, T. (n.d.). DoS Attacks at Cooperative MAC.
6. Jamal, T., Haider, Z., Butt, S. A., & Chohan, A. (n.d.). Denial of Service Attack in
Cooperative Networks. 10–13.
7. Singh, J. (2010). A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction-of-Quality (
RoQ ) Attacks in Wireless LAN. 7(1), 284–291.
8. Technology, I., & Selangor, S. (2017). WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK : A
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ATTACKS AND METRICS. 95(13), 2913–2934.
9. Umesh, A. S., Prof, A., Coe, S., Prof, A., & Coe, S. (2016). WIRELESS LAN SECURITY
ATTACKS AND CCM PROTOCOL WITH SOME BEST PRACTICES IN
DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICES. 429–436.
10. A, A. D., Kumar, A., & Sethumadhavan, M. (2017). ScienceDirect ScienceDirect
Wireless Security Auditing : Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies. Procedia
Computer Science, 115, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.09.153
11. Asam, M., Jamal, T., & Ajaz, A. (2019). Challenges in Wireless Body Area Network.
10(11), 336–341.
12. Azer, M. A. (2018). Enterprise WLAN Security Flaws. 1–8.
13. Bichsel, J. (2015). IT Service Delivery in Higher Education : Current Methods and
Future Directions. 35.
14. Haider, A. Z., Ullah, K., & Jamal, T. (n.d.). DoS Attacks at Cooperative MAC.
15. Jamal, T., Haider, Z., Butt, S. A., & Chohan, A. (n.d.). Denial of Service Attack in
Cooperative Networks. 10–13.
16. Singh, J. (2010). A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction-of-Quality (
RoQ ) Attacks in Wireless LAN. 7(1), 284–291.
17. Technology, I., & Selangor, S. (2017). WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK : A
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ATTACKS AND METRICS. 95(13), 2913–2934.
18. Umesh, A. S., Prof, A., Coe, S., Prof, A., & Coe, S. (2016). WIRELESS LAN SECURITY
ATTACKS AND CCM PROTOCOL WITH SOME BEST PRACTICES IN
DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICES. 429–436.
19. A, A. D., Kumar, A., & Sethumadhavan, M. (2017). ScienceDirect ScienceDirect
Wireless Security Auditing : Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies. Procedia
Computer Science, 115, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.09.153
20. Asam, M., Jamal, T., & Ajaz, A. (2019). Challenges in Wireless Body Area Network.
10(11), 336–341.
21. Azer, M. A. (2018). Enterprise WLAN Security Flaws. 1–8.
22. Bichsel, J. (2015). IT Service Delivery in Higher Education : Current Methods and
Future Directions. 35.
23. Haider, A. Z., Ullah, K., & Jamal, T. (n.d.). DoS Attacks at Cooperative MAC.
24. Jamal, T., Haider, Z., Butt, S. A., & Chohan, A. (n.d.). Denial of Service Attack in
Cooperative Networks. 10–13.
25. Singh, J. (2010). A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction-of-Quality (
RoQ ) Attacks in Wireless LAN. 7(1), 284–291.
26. Technology, I., & Selangor, S. (2017). WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK : A
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ATTACKS AND METRICS. 95(13), 2913–2934.
27. Umesh, A. S., Prof, A., Coe, S., Prof, A., & Coe, S. (2016). WIRELESS LAN SECURITY
ATTACKS AND CCM PROTOCOL WITH SOME BEST PRACTICES IN
DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICES. 429–436.
28. A, A. D., Kumar, A., & Sethumadhavan, M. (2017). ScienceDirect ScienceDirect
Wireless Security Auditing : Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies. Procedia
Computer Science, 115, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.09.153
29. Asam, M., Jamal, T., & Ajaz, A. (2019). Challenges in Wireless Body Area Network.

6
 10(11), 336–341.
30. Azer, M. A. (2018). Enterprise WLAN Security Flaws. 1–8.
31. Bichsel, J. (2015). IT Service Delivery in Higher Education : Current Methods and
Future Directions. 35.
32. Haider, A. Z., Ullah, K., & Jamal, T. (n.d.). DoS Attacks at Cooperative MAC.
33. Jamal, T., Haider, Z., Butt, S. A., & Chohan, A. (n.d.). Denial of Service Attack in
Cooperative Networks. 10–13.
34. Singh, J. (2010). A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction-of-Quality (
RoQ ) Attacks in Wireless LAN. 7(1), 284–291.
35. Technology, I., & Selangor, S. (2017). WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK : A
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ATTACKS AND METRICS. 95(13), 2913–2934.
36. Umesh, A. S., Prof, A., Coe, S., Prof, A., & Coe, S. (2016). WIRELESS LAN SECURITY
ATTACKS AND CCM PROTOCOL WITH SOME BEST PRACTICES IN
DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICES. 429–436.
37. challenges," Computer Communications, vol. 75, pp. 1-25, 2016. [3] A. Kavianpour and
M. C. Anderson, "An Overview of Wireless Network Security," in Cyber Security and
Cloud Computing (CSCloud), 2017 IEEE 4th International Conference on, 2017, pp.
306-309: IEEE.
38. A, A. D., Kumar, A., & Sethumadhavan, M. (2017). ScienceDirect ScienceDirect
Wireless Security Auditing : Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies. Procedia
Computer Science, 115, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.09.153
39. Asam, M., Jamal, T., & Ajaz, A. (2019). Challenges in Wireless Body Area Network.
10(11), 336–341.
40. Azer, M. A. (2018). Enterprise WLAN Security Flaws. 1–8.
41. Bichsel, J. (2015). IT Service Delivery in Higher Education : Current Methods and
Future Directions. 35.
42. Haider, A. Z., Ullah, K., & Jamal, T. (n.d.). DoS Attacks at Cooperative MAC.
43. Jamal, T., Haider, Z., Butt, S. A., & Chohan, A. (n.d.). Denial of Service Attack in
Cooperative Networks. 10–13.
44. Singh, J. (2010). A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction-of-Quality (
RoQ ) Attacks in Wireless LAN. 7(1), 284–291.
45. Technology, I., & Selangor, S. (2017). WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK : A
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ATTACKS AND METRICS. 95(13), 2913–2934.
46. Umesh, A. S., Prof, A., Coe, S., Prof, A., & Coe, S. (2016). WIRELESS LAN SECURITY
ATTACKS AND CCM PROTOCOL WITH SOME BEST PRACTICES IN
DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICES. 429–436.
47. A, A. D., Kumar, A., & Sethumadhavan, M. (2017). ScienceDirect ScienceDirect
Wireless Security Auditing : Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies. Procedia
Computer Science, 115, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.09.153
48. Asam, M., Jamal, T., & Ajaz, A. (2019). Challenges in Wireless Body Area Network.
10(11), 336–341.
49. Azer, M. A. (2018). Enterprise WLAN Security Flaws. 1–8.
50. Bichsel, J. (2015). IT Service Delivery in Higher Education : Current Methods and
Future Directions. 35.
51. Haider, A. Z., Ullah, K., & Jamal, T. (n.d.). DoS Attacks at Cooperative MAC.
52. Jamal, T., Haider, Z., Butt, S. A., & Chohan, A. (n.d.). Denial of Service Attack in
Cooperative Networks. 10–13.
53. Singh, J. (2010). A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction-of-Quality (
RoQ ) Attacks in Wireless LAN. 7(1), 284–291.
54. Technology, I., & Selangor, S. (2017). WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK : A
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ATTACKS AND METRICS. 95(13), 2913–2934.
55. Umesh, A. S., Prof, A., Coe, S., Prof, A., & Coe, S. (2016). WIRELESS LAN SECURITY

7
 ‫‪ATTACKS AND CCM PROTOCOL WITH SOME BEST PRACTICES IN‬‬
‫‪DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICES. 429–436.‬‬

‫‪c) Date and Signature of Supervisor and Student:‬‬

‫‪Supervisor and‬‬
‫‪Name and Last name‬‬ ‫‪Signature‬‬ ‫‪Date‬‬
‫‪student‬‬

‫‪Supervisor‬‬ ‫‪Sebghatullah Aslamzai‬‬

‫‪Student‬‬ ‫‪Mohammad Juma Najafi‬‬

‫الف) تایید استاد رهنما‬

‫موضوع و طرح تحقیق محترم ‪ ...........................‬تحت عنوان‪...................................................‬از طرف استاد‬
‫رهنما محترم‪ ...........................................‬مورخ ‪ ......................‬تایید است‬

‫امضا استاد رهنما‬

‫ب) تایید کمیته دیپارتمنت‬

‫از نظر کمیته بررسی مونوگراف دیپارتمنت ‪ ،...............................‬پیشنهاد تعیین موضوع تحقیقی یا پروژه محترم‬
‫‪ ................................‬به شرح فوق را در جلسه مورخ ‪..................................‬به اتفاق آرا تایید است‪.‬‬

‫امضا اعضای کمیته‬

‫د) تایید دیپارتمنت‬

‫از نظر دیپارتمنت‪ ...............................‬در جلسه مورخ ‪ ...............‬پیشنهاد تعیین موضوعی تحقیقی یا پروژه محترم‬
‫‪/‬محترمه ‪ ....................................................‬را به اتفاق آرا تایید است‪.‬‬

‫با احترام‬

‫پوهندوی صبغت هللا اسملزی‬

‫آمر دیپارتمنت تکنالوژی‬
‫معلوماتی‬

‫‪8‬‬