Cisco Wireless LAN Security

Attacks on EAP Protocols

Cisco and others have developed several wireless protocols based on the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). All these protocols involve a back-end authentication server (AS), with the AP acting mostly as a conduit for the authentication messages. An attacker can target these protocols either passively, by watching the traffic and attempting to gain useful information, or actively by becoming a participant. As a participant, the attacker can try to impersonate the client, the server, or both, as an MitM.

MitM generally refers to an active attack in which an attacker interposes between two parties for nefarious purposes. In the case of wireless networks, the physical challenge is greatly reduced, and an attacker ...