Know the Risks of Ad Hoc Wireless LANs

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Know the Risks of Ad Hoc Wireless LANs

The technology behind 802.11 wireless LANs can power connectivity to new places, but new connections can bring unforeseen risks.

This includes peer-to-peer networks between laptops, PDAs and other devices. These ad hoc wireless networks allow two or more stations to communicate directly with each other without an access point routing their traffic. However, ad hoc networks can open your stations to be directly attacked and used as conduits to the network.

While ad hoc networks can be used to wirelessly connect laptops to a printer, in most cases ad hoc networks are used for spontaneous, informal small group communication. Ad hoc networks operate on the same set of channels that are available to access points and all 802.11 wireless traffic. Therefore, ad hoc traffic may interfere with the performance of other wireless users or networks if they use the same channels.

Ad hoc networks generate security risks because they do not employ any measures to authenticate users, which means that any station within range can connect to other stations configured to allow ad hoc networking.

While each station can be set to operate in either ad hoc networking mode or standard infrastructure mode, Windows XP defaults to allow for both. Any station running Windows XP is automatically configured to allow ad hoc networking as soon as a wireless card is installed.

If a station is connected to the corporate network and is configured to allow ad hoc networking, a hacker can attack the station and gain access to the network. All traffic from the hacker appears on the wired network as originating from the authorized station.

Wireless security experts recommend that security-conscious enterprises establish and enforce a network policy that bans ad hoc networks. Because ad hoc networking is a local configuration for each station, a policy that prohibits ad hoc networks is impossible to enforce without 24x7, stateful monitoring of the wireless LAN.

The policy manager in AirDefense allows the network or security administrator to set a "No ad hoc" policy, and by statefully monitoring the wireless LAN, AirDefense enforces this policy by alerting network administrators when the policy is violated.

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