Wireless Network Security: NoCat

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Wireless Network Security NoCat
60-564 Security and Privacy in the Internet
Dr. A. K. Aggarwal
Aniss M Zakaria
Tuesday, November 2, 2004
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
Agenda

• Introduction
• Securing Wireless Network
• NoCat
• What is NoCat?
• Installation
• Testing
• Conclusion

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Wireless Network Security NoCat
Introduction

• Wireless Network uses Radio waves (2.4 GHz
  unlicensed spectrum).
• Typically have zones with a range of 100-1000
  feet signals pass through walls.
• Wireless technology used in Data networks, i.e.,
  local area networks (wireless LANs).
• IEEE 802.11 is the standard for WLANs which
  comes with three versions IEEE 802.11a,b,g, each
  has its own speed, range and radio frequency (b
  and g standards uses the same 2.4 GHz).

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Wireless Network Security NoCat
Introduction

• Wireless Threats
• Medium is open to everybody in the frequency
  range.
• DoS attacks.
• Jamming, Fake Collisions.
• Integrity attacks.
• Packet capture, modified and then reinjected.
• Confidentially attacks.
• Capture passwords.
• Authentication attacks.
• Anonymity of attacker, Spoofing and
  Unauthorized access.

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Wireless Network Security NoCat
Securing Wireless Network

• Change default SSID
• NetStumbler
• Disable SSID broadcasting
• Enable Encryption (WEP and WPA)
• WEPCrack and AirSnort
• Use MAC address based access
• MAC Spoofing
• Firewall, VPN .. etc

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Wireless Network Security NoCat
NoCat

• Captive Portal, two modes
• Closed (passive) mode
• Open (Active) mode
• NoCat is Open Source, written with PERL.
• Works as gateway and Authentication server.
• requires Linux ( works perfectly on Red Hat)
• Tested on Sun x86 machine operating Fedora Core
  2.
• Independent from any specific wireless
  technology.

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Wireless Network Security NoCat
NoCat
Hardware requirements - Any PC or Server with
x86 architecture. - Two NICs. - 10 GB free hard
drive space. - At least 256 RAM. Note NoCat
currently installed on Sun Server with x86
architecture with 2 processors, 2 GB RAM and 36
GB of Hard drive space connected to the main CS
router using a routable (real) IP on one NIC
while the other NIC connect all access points
(AP) using non-routable IPs (192.168.137/24). We
are using Fedora Core 2 as an Operating
system. Software requirements - Linux
(preferably Red Hat or Fedora). - Apache, MySQL
and PERL. - DHCP and DNS. - NoCatAuth. Source
Code, no binaries! obtained from
http//www.nocat.net
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
NoCat

• Testing
• Any PC or Laptop with wireless capabilities.
  Please select an OS that support wireless
  networking like Windows XP or Linux.
• Our current Wireless Network at School of
  Computer Science (C-WL-2) does not have any
  encryption method turned on, and we do not use
  MAC address filtering like we did with (CS-WL-1),
  which was a hard job to keep track of all MAC
  address and setting up almost every computer
  wants to connects to our network.
• No need for special configuration at the client
  side.
• Incase of Windows 2000 or earlier, you need to
  install software which comes with the wireless
  NIC.

My tests done on Windows XP with SP2, but
actually we have test almost every platform!
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
After contacting the NoCat server, the first
thing it will issue an IP to the machine, even
before authenticating occurs.
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
Once you got an IP, open your favorite Internet
Browser like IE or FireFox.
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
If username and password were entered correctly,
you will be directed after the following page to
your default home page. This page will stay for
5 seconds!
Please allow popup for this site, or it will ask
you for authenticating every 30 minutes.
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
But you may ask, what security measures NoCat has
added to our wireless network! As it did not
enable Encryption or MAC address Filtering?! So
why we need it!?
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
NoCat, mainly will only give the feelings that
your network is under control, as the users will
think twice before they miss around, as they
already has given their own user name, so they
feel that they are monitored, which is true!,
NoCat provides a nice monitoring page which can
help determining who Is online, when s/he logged
in and some extra information like machine MAC
address and current IP address.
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
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Wireless Network Security NoCat
Thank you!