Sebastopol, CA--History is full of otiose attempts at security: the
Great Wall of China, impregnable to blows but easily breached by bribe,
or the Maginot Line, doomed to failure because its designers didn't
grasp the significance of defending against an army that was
increasingly mobile. Successful security ultimately depends not only on
building a strong defense, but understanding the tactics of those you
would defend against. Wireless networks are fraught with new security
challenges for users and network administrators alike. The lack of
physical security, access to free auditing tools that double as attack
tools, and the ability to monitor traffic without being noticed make
wireless networks an easy target for malicious users. In O'Reilly's
just-released 802.11 Security (US $34.95), authors Bruce Potter and
Bob Fleck tackle the issues unique to wireless networking, covering the
areas of risk and potential attack and the tools that can be used to
successfully defend against them.
"The phrase 'wireless security' is considered by some to be an
oxymoron," say Potter and Fleck. "How can a system with no physical
security hope to facilitate secure data transport? Well, with careful
planning and configuration, a wireless network can protect itself from
many types of attacks and become almost as secure as its wired
counterpart. 802.11 can be deployed with various security mechanisms to
provide robust, mobile, and hardened network infrastructure."
802.11 is a family of four specifications for wireless local area
networks, or WLANs, developed as open standards by the IEEE (Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Among them, 802.11b, or
"Wi-Fi," is the wireless standard that most companies are adopting. In
"802.11 Security" Potter and Fleck begin by explaining the underlying
structure of the 802.11 protocol, the risks associated with deploying
and using a wireless network, and how attackers will attempt to exploit
inherent weak spots.
Once readers understand the fundamentals, the book discusses the
challenges of Wireless Access Points (WAP), bandwidth stealing, and the
problematic Wired Equivalent Privacy component of 802.11. The authors
detail the technical setup instructions using a "from the edge to the
core" concept. This begins with secure access points for client use,
moves to secure configuration of the network's IP gateway, then zooms
back out for a discussion of security solutions that involves many
parts of the network, including end-to-end security. Readers will learn
how to configure a wireless client and to set up a WAP using either
Linux or FreeBSD. They'll also find thorough information on controlling
network access and encrypting client traffic.
Readers will be able to use this book as a roadmap to deploy a wireless
network, from the client to the access point to the gateway. The book
provides practical solutions for all major components of an 802.11
network, with station security configurations for many operating
systems, including Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X, and Windows. Real
world networks contain many different operating systems, and this book
will give readers the tools to secure whatever is thrown their way.
"802.11 Security" also covers:
- Securing access points
- Gateway security
- SNMP monitoring
- Denial of Service and Man-in-the-Middle attacks
- VPN configuring and 802.1x, an authentication and authorization
protocol that will become more important in future wireless network
deployments
"802.11 Security" is a book whose time has come. If you are a network,
security, or systems engineer, or interested in deploying 802.11b-based
systems, you'll want this book beside you every step of the way.
Additional Resources
802.11 Security
Bruce Potter and Bob Fleck
ISBN 1-596-00290-4, 176 pages, $34.95 (US), $54.95 (CAN), 24.95 (UK)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
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