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Digital forensics
Wireless Network Forensics Unplugged
ALNAZIF NOHAMMED
[email protected]
Topics
 The IEEE Layer 2 Protocol Series.

 Wireless Access Points (WAPs).
 Wireless Traffic Capture and Analysis.
 Common Attacks.
 Locating Wireless Devices.
 Conclusion.
Quick introduction:
Wireless devices have exploded in popularity during the past decade. Common
types of wireless devices and networks include:
• AM/FM radios
• Cordless phones
• Cell phones
• Bluetooth headsets
• Infrared devices, such as TV remotes Wireless doorbells
• Wi-Fi (802.11) LAN networking over RF
• WiMAX (802.16) last-mile broadband2
We will focus our attention on 802.11 Wi-Fi networks specifically. because this
type of Wi-Fi networks are extremely common both in the enterprise and at
home.
1-The IEEE Layer 2 Protocol Series
 Why So Many Layer 2 Protocols?

 The 802.11 Protocol Suite
 802.1X
A-Why So Many Layer 2 Protocols:
For forensic investigators, it is important to realize that if you are capturing

traffic
from a wireless network, there may well be stations actively participating in the
network
that you cannot overhear from your vantage point, due to signal strength unlike
on wired media, where voltages propagate much more reliably through copper or
fiber cables.
This simple fact has far-reaching effects on both data link–layer protocols
themselves and forensic analysis of the wireless evidence.
B-The 802.11 Protocol Suite
1- Frame Types
The 802.11 protocol suite defines different types of frames. For forensic
investigators, different types of frames contain different types of evidence, as we
will see. There are three types of 802.11 frames:
• Management Frames—Govern communications between stations, except flow
control.
• Control Frames—Support flow control over a variably available medium (such as
RF).
• Data Frames—Encapsulate the Layer 3+ data that moves between stations
actively engaged in communication on a wireless network.
 Forensics value
 they are not encrypted. so these clear-text frames provide a wealth

of information as to which stations are trying to communicate, in which ways,
and with whom.
if the wireless network is not encrypted, or if you have access
to the encryption key and can gain access to unencrypted data frames then you
can capture and analyze the wireless traffic at Layer 3 and above
2- Frame Analysis
The order that bits are transmitted in the 802.11 protocol suite is not
straightforward.
This can cause forensic analysts to produce incorrect results if you are not
careful.
To fully understand how the bits we capture correspond with protocol charts and
field descriptions.
We can use concept of endianness.
3-Network-Byte Order (TCP/IP, but NOT 802.11)
Network forensic analysts are used to viewing captured bits in big-endian form.
The IP protocol specifies the order the bits are transmitted across the network as
big-endian. This is often referred to as network-byte order.
4-802.11 Endianness
The IEEE 802.11 specification transmits bits in a different order from the TCP/IP
protocol suite, which most network forensic analysts are familiar with.
Mixed-endian? 802.11 is neither big-endian nor little-endian, but is best
described as mixed-endian. While the bit ordering within each individual data
field is big-endian, the fields themselves are transmitted in reverse order, within
the byte-boundaries.
5-Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
 Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is part of the 802.11 standards, published by
the IEEE. It was proposed as a way to enable a WAP to provide a “private”
network, similar to the environment that a wired hub could provide due to
natural limitations of the physical media.
 To gain access to a WEP-encrypted wireless network, users need knowledge of
a shared secret key to gain access to the wireless hub’s service at Layer 2.
Forensic investigators
 should assume that WEP-protected segments are at high risk of
Compromise and may be a likely vector for unauthorized network intrusions.
 On the plus side, investigators who are (legally) conducting covert
investigations without the knowledge of local IT staff may find that WEP-
protected networks are a convenient point of covert entry to the network.
6-TKIP, AES, WPA, and WPA2.
WEP did not provide the level of protection that its designers had intended.
Therefore they come up with something better to replace it.
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).
WPA was a stop-gap measure designed to deal with some of the weaknesses of
WEP, such as key rotation.
C-802.1X
 802.1X was designed to provide a modular, extensible authentication

framework for LANs (regardless of physical medium). It can be used over
wired or wireless networks, and it is designed to control access to the LAN.
Forensic investigators should be aware of 802.1X when it is used in the
environment under investigation because it limits access to the network and
requires a back-end authentication system, that typically stores access logs.
 802.1X is the IEEE’s standard for implementing the IETF’s Extensible
Authentication Protocol (EAP) over LANs.13 EAP was intended as an
improvement to the Point-to-Point
 Impact on Wireless Networks
 Implications for the Investigator.
2 -Wireless Access Points (WAPs)
 Why Investigate Wireless Access Points?

 Types of Wireless Access Points
 WAP Evidence
A-Why Investigate Wireless Access Points
Wireless access points are typically involved in forensic investigations for one of
a few reasons:
• Wireless access points may contain locally stored logs of connection attempts
authentication successes and failures and other local WAP activity.
• WAP logs can help you track the physical movements of a wireless client
throughout
a building or campus.
• The WAP configuration may provide insight regarding how an attacker gained
access
to the network.
• The WAP configuration may have been modified by an unauthorized party as
part of
an attack.
• The WAP itself may be compromised.
B-Types of Wireless Access Points
There are a wide variety of wireless access points available, General classes of
WAPs include enterprise and consumer devices.
.1 Enterprise
Enterprise facilities typically span a much wider geographic range than home
offices or small businesses.
2- Consumer
Small businesses and home users often deploy consumer-class WAPs in their home
and office environments. These devices are inexpensive and easy to configure for
simple use.
C-WAP Evidence
 Wireless access points contain both volatile and nonvolatile evidence,

although due to their persistent storage capabilities tend to be very limited.
WAPs can also send logs over the network to a remote repository.
 As with switches and routers, most of the evidence on WAPs tends to be quite
volatile.
 Enterprise-class WAPs tend to include the same functionality and range of
evidence as
 wired routers, with the addition of wireless-specific capabilities.
Type of Evidence that can be fined on wireless access points:
 History of connections by MAC address
• List of IPs associated with MACs
• Historical logs of wireless events access requests, key rotation, etc.
3- Wireless Traffic Capture and Analysis
 Spectrum Analysis
 Wireless Passive Evidence Acquisition
 Analyzing 802.11 Efficiently
A- Spectrum Analysis
There are, literally, an infinite number of frequencies over which data can be
transmitted through the air. Sometimes the most challenging part of an
investigator’s job is simply identifying the wireless traffic in the first place. For
Wi-Fi traffic, the IEEE utilizes three frequency ranges:
• 2.4 GHz (802.11b/g/n)19
• 3.6 GHz (802.11y)20
• 5 GHz (802.11a/h/j/n)21
Each of these frequency ranges is divided into distinct channels, which are
smaller frequency Bands. Although the IEEE has set globally recognized frequency
boundaries for 802.11 protocols,
individual countries typically allow only a subset of these frequency ranges
B-Wireless Passive Evidence Acquisition
In order to capture wireless traffic, investigators need an 802.11 wireless card
capable of running in Monitor mode. Many wireless cards do not support this
capability. Furthermore, in order to ensure totally passive monitoring, it is
preferable to use a special-purpose WiFi monitoring card that can be configured
to operate completely passively.
C-Analyzing 802.11 Efficiently
In order to analyze efficiently we can use tcpdump and tshark
We can use Wireshark to sort out the endianness problem and for large packet
captures in particular, tcpdump and tshark tend to be more efficient and
scalable.
6.4 Common Attacks
 Sniffing 224
 Rogue Wireless Access Points 225
 Evil Twin 227
 WEP Cracking
A-Sniffing
Eavesdropping on wireless traffic is extremely common, in part because it is so
easy to doFrom script kiddies in coffee shops to professional surveillance teams,
wireless traffic monitoring is, frankly, popular
B-Rogue Wireless Access Points.
anyone can purchase a cheap WAP and plug it into the company network. Often,
employees do this simply for the sake of convenience, not realizing that it opens
the company to attack.
Criminals also deliberately plant wireless access points that allow them to bypass
the pesky firewall and remotely access the network later on
C-Evil Twin
The “Evil Twin” attack is when an attacker sets up a WAP with the same SSID as
one that is used in the local environment, usually in order to conduct a man-in-
the-middle attack on 802.11 client’s traffic.
D-WEP Cracking
WEP is designed to encrypt the payload of data frames on a wireless network
using a shared key. The key, once selected, is distributed to all stations as a “pre-
shared key” (PSK).
The PSK itself is never exposed on the network, and so it is expected to be
shared in some out-of-band way between the stations that need it.
Each station encrypts the payload of all data frames with the PSK and a randomly
selected initialization vector (IV) so that the encryption key changes for every
frame. The problem with using an IV in a reversible, symmetric encryption
algorithm, such as RC4, is that stations have to supply the IV in plain text. Each
6.5 Locating Wireless Devices
 Gather Station Descriptors

 Identify Nearby Wireless Access Points 229
 Signal Strength 231
 Commercial Enterprise Tools
 Gather Station Descriptors
we can learn what a wireless device probably looks like from its network
traffic.
 Identify Nearby Wireless Access Points.
the strategy for locating a wireless device will depend in part on the function of
the device.
 Signal Strength
There are many tools such as NetStumbler or Kismet that will list the nearby
wireless access points and show you their relative signal strengths. Often, you
can locate a mysterious wireless device simply by viewing the signal strengths
using one of these applications and walking in the direction of increasing signal
strength. This works well in situations where the station of interest is not mobile.
 Commercial Enterprise Tools
Enterprises that deploy campus-wide wireless LANs often install central
management consoles, which include mapping and station tracking capabilities.
Vendors such as Aruba and Cisco offer specialized wireless tracking and WIDS
software for use in these environments.
Skyhook
Skyhook Wireless Positioning System (WPS) is a proprietary location tracking
service provided by Skyhook Wireless.
It is an extremely popular alternative to GPS, especially because it works well
indoors and can provide results with 10–30m of accuracy in urban environments
where GPS is less effective.
Conclusion
We talked about the types of evidence that you can gather from
wireless access points, and touched on wireless traffic capture and analysis. We
reviewed
common attacks on wireless networks that investigators should be familiar with
so that you
can recognize them in the field. Finally, we discussed one of the most common
hurdles facing
wireless network forensic investigators.

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Digital forensics

Wireless Network Forensics Unplugged

 The IEEE Layer 2 Protocol Series.

 Why So Many Layer 2 Protocols?

For forensic investigators, it is important to realize that if you are capturing

 they are not encrypted. so these clear-text frames provide a wealth

 802.1X was designed to provide a modular, extensible authentication

 Why Investigate Wireless Access Points?

 Wireless access points contain both volatile and nonvolatile evidence,

 Gather Station Descriptors

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