DOCSLIB.ORG

Session Hijacking Attacks in Wireless Local Area Networks

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Session Hijacking Attacks in Wireless Local Area Networks Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive Theses and Dissertations Thesis Collection 2004-03 Session hijacking attacks in wireless local area networks Onder, Hulusi Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School http://hdl.handle.net/10945/1641 MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS SESSION HIJACKING ATTACKS IN WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS by Hulusi ONDER March 2004 Thesis Advisor: Geoffrey XIE Second Reader: John GIBSON Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY 2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED March 2004 Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE: Session Hijacking attacks in Wireless Local Area 5. FUNDING NUMBERS Networks 6. AUTHOR Hulusi ONDER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING Naval Postgraduate School ORGANIZATION REPORT Monterey, CA 93943-5000 NUMBER 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER 11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. 12a. DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENT 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited 13. ABSTRACT Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies are becoming widely used since they provide more flexibility and availability. Unfortunately, it is possible for WLANs to be implemented with security flaws which are not addressed in the original 802.11 specification. IEEE formed a working group (TGi) to provide a complete solution (code named 802.11i standard) to all the security problems of the WLANs. The group proposed using 802.1X as an interim solution to the deficiencies in WLAN authentication and key management. The full 802.11i standard is expected to be finalized by the end of 2004. Although 802.1X provides a better authentication scheme than the original 802.11 security solution, it is still vulnerable to denial-of-service, session hijacking, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Using an open-source 802.1X test-bed, this thesis evaluates various session hijacking mechanisms through experimentation. The main conclusion is that the risk of session hijacking attack is significantly reduced with the new security standard (802.11i); however, the new standard will not resolve all of the problems. An attempt to launch a session hijacking attack against the new security standard will not succeed, although it will result in a denial-of-service attack against the user. 14. SUBJECT TERMS 15. NUMBER OF Wireless Local Area Networks, Authentication, Security, Session Hijacking, 802.1X, 802.11, 802.11i, PAGES Encryption, Access Control, Supplicant, Authenticator, Authentication Server, open-source test-bed. 151 16. PRICE CODE 17. SECURITY 18. SECURITY 19. SECURITY 20. LIMITATION CLASSIFICATION OF CLASSIFICATION OF THIS CLASSIFICATION OF OF ABSTRACT REPORT PAGE ABSTRACT Unclassified Unclassified Unclassified UL NSN 7540-01-280-5500 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 2-89) Prescribed by ANSI Std. 239-18 i THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ii Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited SESSION HIJACKING ATTACKS IN WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS Hulusi ONDER Lieutenant Junior Grade, Turkish Navy B.S., Turkish Naval Academy, 1998 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE from the NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL March 2004 Author: Hulusi ONDER Approved by: Geoffrey Xie, PhD Thesis Advisor John Gibson Second Reader Peter Denning Chairman, Department of Computer Science iii THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK iv ABSTRACT Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies are becoming widely used since they provide more flexibility and availability. Unfortunately, it is possible for WLANs to be implemented with security flaws which are not addressed in the original 802.11 specification. IEEE formed a working group (TGi) to provide a complete solution (code named 802.11i standard) to all the security problems of the WLANs. The group proposed using 802.1X as an interim solution to the deficiencies in WLAN authentication and key management. The full 802.11i standard is expected to be finalized by the end of 2004. Although 802.1X provides a better authentication scheme than the original 802.11 security solution, it is still vulnerable to denial-of-service, session hijacking, and man-in- the-middle attacks. Using an open-source 802.1X test-bed, this thesis evaluates various session hijacking mechanisms through experimentation. The main conclusion is that the risk of session hijacking attack is significantly reduced with the new security standard (802.11i); however, the new standard will not resolve all of the problems. An attempt to launch a session hijacking attack against the new security standard will not succeed, although it will result in a denial-of-service attack against the user. v THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK vi TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................1 A. BACKGROUND ..............................................................................................1 B. THESIS OBJECTIVES...................................................................................2 C. THESIS ORGANIZATION............................................................................2 II. BACKGROUND AND SESSION HIJACKING ATTACKS ..................................5 A. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................5 B. IEEE 802.1X AUTHENTICATION MECHANISM....................................6 1. Introduction..........................................................................................6 2. Elements of the Authentication Mechanism......................................6 a. Supplicant..................................................................................6 b. Authenticator.............................................................................6 c. Authentication Server ...............................................................7 3. Application of the 802.1X Standard for WLANS .............................7 4. Protocols Used by the 802.1X Standard.............................................8 a. Extensible Authentication Protocol over LAN (EAPOL)........9 b. Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) ............................11 c. Remote Authentication Dial in User Service (RADIUS).......13 5. 802.1X Authentication Procedure ....................................................15 C. SESSION HIJACKING ATTACK ..............................................................18 1. Introduction........................................................................................18 2. Vulnerabilities of the 802.1X Authentication Scheme....................18 a. Propagation Medium ..............................................................19 b. Miscommunication of the State Machines.............................19 c. Lack of Authenticity................................................................20 d. One Way Authentication.........................................................20 e. Encryption ...............................................................................21 3. Discussion of the University of Maryland Paper ............................21 D. SUMMARY ....................................................................................................22 III. AN OPEN-SOURCE WIRELESS PROTOCOL TEST-BED ...............................23 A. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................23 B. 802.1X AUTHENTICATION TEST-BED...................................................23 1. Elements of the Authentication Test-Bed ........................................24 2. Authentication Methods ....................................................................24 3. Hardware and Software Configuration of the Test-Bed................24 a. Supplicant................................................................................24 b. Authenticator...........................................................................26 c. Authentication Server .............................................................32 4. EAP-TLS Authentication Method....................................................36 5. X.509v3 Certificates...........................................................................37 6. Validation............................................................................................38 vii C. SUMMARY ....................................................................................................39 IV. APPLICATION OF THE SESSION HIJACKING ATTACK .............................41
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Preventing Session Hijacking Using Encrypted One-Time-Cookies
    Preventing Session Hijacking using Encrypted One-Time-Cookies Renascence Tarafder Prapty 1, Shuhana Azmin 1 Md. Shohrab Hossain 1, Husnu S. Narman2 1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh 2Weisberg Division of Computer Science, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, USA Email: [email protected],[email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract—Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) cookies are cryptography-based techniques to achieve cookie confidential- pieces of information shared between HTTP server and client to ity and integrity. However, each mechanism lacks in one aspect remember stateful information for the stateless HTTP protocol or another. The scheme described in [1] does not achieve or to record a user’s browsing activity. Cookies are often used in web applications to identify a user and corresponding authen- cookie confidentiality. In [3], the web server is required to ticated session. Thus, stealing a cookie can lead to hijacking an store one-time keys that lead to key management problems. authenticated user’s session. To prevent this type of attack, a In [2] and [4], a one-time key is encrypted by the web server’s cookie protection mechanism is required. In this paper, we have public key. As public key encryption is computationally expen- proposed a secure and efficient cookie protection system. We have sive, these schemes are not efficient. [5] proposes the use of used one time cookies to prevent attacker from performing cookie injection. To ensure cookie integrity and confidentiality, we have cache cookies as an alternative to cookies for authentication of encrypted sensitive information in the cookie.
    [Show full text]
  • Security and Privacy Concerns of Internet Single Sign-On"
    Security and Privacy Concerns of Internet Single Sign-On Risks and Issues as They Pertain to Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 Specifications Authors: Gary Ellison, Jeff Hodges, Susan Landau Date: 6 Sep 2002 Introduction As noted in ‘‘A Brief Introduction to Liberty,’’ for the man on the street, the lawyer in her office, the shopper or investor at home, identity on the Internet is a burdensome and off-putting process. There is one sign-on and password for the online book merchant, another for the corporate network and for each of its pieces --- the client’s private pages, the outsourced human resources office, the online travel agency --- yet another pair for accessing Lands End, still another for Bank of America. The same holds for business-to-business interactions. The result is a cumbersome user experience. The first challenge of Web services is a simple and secure identity mechanism, the second, and equally important, concern is privacy protection. Single sign-on and federated network identity (a system for binding multiple accounts for a given user) are key to solving these issues. A federated system allows businesses to manage their own resources including customer data. Federated network identity enables customers to retain some control over which companies have access to their own information [INTRO]. The Liberty Alliance was formed to deliver and support a federated network identity solution for the Internet, enabling single sign-on for consumers as well as business users in an open, federated way. The Liberty Alliance version 1.0 specifications (referred to as the Liberty Specifications or Liberty protocols throughout this document) clear the way for a user to have a seamless Internet experience and simplify the business of conducting business with multiple Web sites.
    [Show full text]
  • SESSION RIDING a Widespread Vulnerability in Today's Web Applications
    Whitepaper SESSION RIDING A Widespread Vulnerability in Today's Web Applications Thomas Schreiber, SecureNet GmbH, Dec 2004 SecureNet GmbH - Münchner Technologiezentrum - Frankfurter Ring 193a - D-80807 München www.securenet.de - [email protected] - Phone +49/89/32133-600 Whitepaper – Session Riding SecureNet GmbH – 2 T ABLE OF C ONTENTS 1 Abstract .............................................................................................................................3 2 What is Session Riding?.......................................................................................................3 3 How Session Riding Works ..................................................................................................4 3.1 How Cookies and Session IDs work................................................................4 3.2 The Threat............................................................................................................5 3.3 Where is the Vulnerability? ................................................................................6 3.4 Non-form-based Authentication Methods......................................................6 3.5 Summary ...............................................................................................................7 4 What makes things even worse...........................................................................................7 4.1 Vulnerable GET-Requests .................................................................................7 4.1.1 The IMG-Tag ............................................................................................7
    [Show full text]
  • Server Side Protection Against Cross Site Request Forgery Using CSRF
    ol chn ogy Te & Gupta and Gola, J Inform Tech Softw Eng 2016, 6:3 n S o o ti ft a w a m r r e o f DOI: 10.4173/2165-7866.1000182 E Journal of n n I g f i o n l e a e n r r i n u g o J ISSN: 2165-7866 Information Technology & Software Engineering Research Article Open Access Server Side Protection against Cross Site Request Forgery using CSRF Gateway Jaya Gupta* and Suneeta Gola College of Science & Engineering, Department of Computer Engineering, India Abstract The E-Commerce and Social Media has become the new identity for millions of users across the globe. Ease of services for Shopping, Travel, Internet Banking, Social Media, chat and collaboration Apps etc. have become part of one’s life where these identities have name, media content, confidential notes, business projects and credit cards. Convenience and connections brings the ease of connectivity and services so does come the concerns related to unauthorized usage and fraudulent transactions that could be lead to loss of money, time, emotions and even life. Web defacement, fake accounts, account hijacking, account lock and unavailability of services has become a common online news and distress for many. There are different Web Attacks and exploits that have sprung up with time and usage for different type of illegal actions performed everyday online. Cross Site Request Forgery Attack is one of the Web top 10 exploited attacks for the past 5 years (Source OSWAP) which can maliciously exploit online services, where unauthorized actions are performed by the fraudulent user on behalf of a trusted and authenticated account for website.
    [Show full text]
  • Secure Device Bootstrapping with the Nimble out of Band Authentication Protocol
    Raghavendra Mudugodu Seetarama Secure Device Bootstrapping with the Nimble Out of Band Authentication Protocol School of Electrical Engineering Thesis submitted for examination for the degree of Master of Science in Technology. Espoo 14.05.2017 Thesis supervisor: Prof. Tuomas Aura Thesis advisor: Mohit Sethi, D.Sc. (Tech.) aalto university abstract of the school of electrical engineering master’s thesis Author: Raghavendra Mudugodu Seetarama Title: Secure Device Bootstrapping with the Nimble Out of Band Authentication Protocol Date: 14.05.2017 Language: English Number of pages: 8+63 Department of Computer Science Professorship: Secure Systems Code: S-55 Supervisor: Prof. Tuomas Aura Advisor: Mohit Sethi, D.Sc. (Tech.) The smart personal and business appliances which form the Internet of Things are expected to become ubiquitous and to make our daily life more convenient. Most of these devices are connected though wireless networks to cloud-based online ser- vices. However, such devices may be vulnerable to various attacks which could compromise the users’ security and privacy and even cause physical harm. There- fore, securing the network connection for the devices is of utmost importance. In order to secure the network connections, the devices need to be configured with the necessary keys and other connection parameters. There is not yet any widely adopted generic solution for this secure bootstrapping. One proposed solution is out-of-band (OOB) authentication with a protocol called EAP-NOOB, which is a new method for the EAP and IEEE 802.1X authentication framework. The goal of this thesis is to build a prototype of the EAP-NOOB protocol and deploy the prototype to test it with the real-world scenarios.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Wireless? What Makes Wireless Networks Different a Network by Any Other Name
    802.11® Wireless Networks The Definitive Guide By Matthew Gast ............................................... Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: April 2005 ISBN: 0-596-10052-3 Pages: 656 Table of Contents | Index As we all know by now, wireless networks offer many advantages over fixed (or wired) networks. Foremost on that list is mobility, since going wireless frees you from the tether of an Ethernet cable at a desk. But that's just the tip of the cable-free iceberg. Wireless networks are also more flexible, faster and easier for you to use, and more affordable to deploy and maintain. The de facto standard for wireless networking is the 802.11 protocol, which includes Wi-Fi (the wireless standard known as 802.11b) and its faster cousin, 802.11g. With easy-to-install 802.11 network hardware available everywhere you turn, the choice seems simple, and many people dive into wireless computing with less thought and planning than they'd give to a wired network. But it's wise to be familiar with both the capabilities and risks associated with the 802.11 protocols. And 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is the perfect place to start. This updated edition covers everything you'll ever need to know about wireless technology. Designed with the system administrator or serious home user in mind, it's a no-nonsense guide for setting up 802.11 on Windows and Linux. Among the wide range of topics covered are discussions on: deployment considerations network monitoring and performance tuning wireless security issues how to use and select access points network monitoring essentials wireless card configuration security issues unique to wireless networks With wireless technology, the advantages to its users are indeed plentiful.
    [Show full text]
  • A Secure Framework for Iot Smart Home by Resolving Session
    Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology: G Interdisciplinary Volume 20 Issue 2 Version 1.0 Year 2020 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Online ISSN: 0975-4172 & Print ISSN: 0975-4350 A Secure Framework for IoT Smart Home by Resolving Session Hijacking By Fozilatoon Humaira, Md Sanju Islam, Sanjida Akter Luva & Md Bayazid Rahman Notre Dame University Abstract- IoT is a blessing in the field of information and technology. It is developing and deploying day by day. It is working for our betterment in the section of home, environment, retail, security, factory, industry, agriculture, education, energy, healthcare, and so on. In the Smart Home section, there are a numerous inventions. Vast analysis and working can be possible if needed. We have worked with session hijacking and implement it in our Smart Home Prototype. This paper represents the basic concept of IoT in Smart Home with Security like Session Hijacking. Keywords: IoT, internet of things, smart home, session regeneration, security, session hijacking. GJCST-G Classification: K.6.5 ASecureFrameworkforIoTSmartHomebyResolvingSessionHijacking Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2020. Fozilatoon Humaira, Md Sanju Islam, Sanjida Akter Luva & Md Bayazid Rahman. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A Secure Framework for IoT Smart Home by Resolving Session Hijacking Fozilatoon Humaira α, Md Sanju Islam σ, Sanjida Akter Luva ρ & Md Bayazid Rahman Ѡ Abstract- IoT is a blessing in the field of information and Table 1: Internet of Things Applications Ranking [7] technology.
    [Show full text]
  • Session Hijacking and the Cloud Mentor: Ming Chow
    Casey Gowrie COMP116 Final Project Session Hijacking and the Cloud Mentor: Ming Chow Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 What Is The Cloud? .................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 The “Cloud Multiplier Effect” .................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Session Hijacking ....................................................................................................................... 5 2. To the Community .............................................................................................................. 6 3. How a Session Hijacking Attack Happens ................................................................... 6 4. Detection and Defenses .................................................................................................... 7 4.1 Detection ....................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1.1 Existing Methods .................................................................................................................................. 8 4.1.2 Proposed Models .................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture 26: Web Security 1 Web Application 2 Session Hijacking
    CS5430 { System Security Spring 2018 Lecture 26: Web Security May 2, 2018 Instructor: Eleanor Birrell 1 Web Application The Internet plays an integral role in modern life. Typical Americans spend hours each day online1 interacting with a variety of web applications. These applications have access to a wide range of valuable and/or sensitive information about users and their behav- iors, including financial data, medical data, social interactions, and behavior patterns. Unfortunately, security vulnerabilities are still common, and web applications are the target of frequent attacks and compromises. Today's class will focus on some common attack strategies|cross-site scripting (XSS), session hijacking, cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and SQL injection (SQLi)|and how to secure a web application against (or at least mitigate) these types of attacks. 2 Session Hijacking The most common vulnerability in modern web applications is session hijacking. Session hijacking exploits a feature the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over which websites are served. HTTP, by design, is stateless: a client sends a HTTP request and the server sends the corresponding HTTP response.2 However, many applications require state in order to function, for example, an application with user accounts should remember that a particular user already logged in. Session state is commonly implemented with HTTP cookies.3 Cookies are small pieces of data (strings) sent by the server and stored at the client; they are associated with a particular domain and path, and the browser sends attaches the cookie to the header of all HTTP requests that match that domain and path. Cookies are extremely common because they are very useful; cookies can be used to implement stateful web applications, content personalization, and user tracking.
    [Show full text]
  • Security Risks of Using Wi-Fi Hotspot: Secure Socket Layer (Ssl) Under Breach Attack
    SECURITY RISKS OF USING WI-FI HOTSPOT: SECURE SOCKET LAYER (SSL) UNDER BREACH ATTACK Mentor: Ming Chow Hao Wan [email protected] Table of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 1. Definition .................................................................................................................. 3 2. Problem With Wi-Fi Hotspot ...................................................................................... 3 2. Service to community ............................................................................................................ 5 3. Action Item ........................................................................................................................... 7 1. SSL............................................................................................................................. 7 2. BREACH attack ........................................................................................................... 9 4. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 13 5. Supplementary material ...................................................................................................... 14 6. References .......................................................................................................................... 15 1 Abstract The last decade has witnessed a significant improvement of mobility
    [Show full text]
  • Whatsapp Security and Role of Metadata in Preserving Privacy
    WhatsApp security and role of metadata in preserving privacy Nidhi Rastogi, James Hendler Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA [email protected] [email protected] Abstract: WhatsApp messenger is arguaBly the most popular moBile app availaBle on all smart-phones. Over one billion people worldwide for free messaging, calling, and media sharing use it. In April 2016, WhatsApp switched to a default end-to-end encrypted service. This means that all messages (SMS), phone calls, videos, audios, and any other form of information exchanged cannot Be read By any unauthorized entity since WhatsApp version 2.16.2 (released April 2016). In this paper we analyze the WhatsApp messaging platform and critique its security architecture along with a focus on its privacy preservation mechanisms. We report that the Signal Protocol, which forms the Basis of WhatsApp end-to-end encryption, does offer protection against forward secrecy, and MITM to a large extent. Finally, we argue that simply encrypting the end-to-end channel cannot preserve privacy. The metadata can reveal just enough information to show connections Between people, their patterns, and personal information. This paper elaborates on the security architecture of WhatsApp and performs an analysis on the various protocols used. This enlightens us on the status quo of the app security and what further measures can be used to fill existing gaps without compromising the usability. We start By descriBing the following (i) important concepts that need to be understood to properly understand security, (ii) the security architecture, (iii) security evaluation, (iv) followed By a summary of our work.
    [Show full text]
  • Lab11-Slides-Web-Security.Pdf
    Web Security Instructor: Fengwei zhang SUSTech CS 315 Computer Security 1 The Web • Security for the World-Wide Web (WWW) • New vulnerabilities to consider: SQL injection, Cross-site Scripting (XSS), Session Hijacking, and Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF) • These share some common causes with memory safety vulnerabilities; like confusion of code and data • Defense also similar: validate untrusted input • New wrinkle: Web 2.0’s use of mobile code • Mobile code, such as a Java Applet, is code that is transmitted across a network and executed on a remote machine. • How to protect your applications and other web resources? SUSTech CS 315 Computer Security 2 Web Security Outline • Web 1.0: the basics • Attack: SQL (“sequel”) injection • The Web with state • Attack: Session Hijacking • Attack: Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF) • Web 2.0: The advent of Javascript • Attack: Cross-site Scripting (XSS) • Defenses throughout • Theme: validate or sanitize input, then trust it SUSTech CS 315 Computer Security 3 Web Basics SUSTech CS 315 Computer Security 4 The Web, Basically Client Server Browser Web server HTTP (Private) Database Data (Much) user data is DB is a separate entity, part of the browser logically (and often physically) SUSTech CS 315 Computer Security 5 Basic structure of web traffic Client Server HTTP Request Browser Web server User clicks •Requests contain: • The URL of the resource the client wishes to obtain • Headers describing what the browser can do •Request types can be GET or POST • GET: all data is in the URL itself (no server side effects) • POST: includes the data as separate fields (can have side effects) SUSTech CS 315 Computer Security 6 HTTP GET requests http://www.reddit.com/r/security User-Agent is typically a browser but it can be wget, JDK, etc.
    [Show full text]