Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Attack jams spy cameras

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 16:45:24 -0400

Attack jams spy cameras
By Adam Turner
May 18, 2004
Next

An electronic invisibility cloak generated by nothing more than an
off-the-shelf PDA would allow intruders to elude wireless security
cameras using vulnerabilities in the most common wireless technologies.

There is no defence against such a Mission Impossible-style attack,
revealed last week, which can be used to knock out wireless networks and
possibly transfer unwitting users to a spoofed wireless network.

Accidentally discovered last year by PhD students at the Queensland
University of Technology's Information Security Research Centre, the
exploit presents obvious applications for terrorism and espionage.

The vulnerability is "trivial" to exploit and only took 30 minutes to
master, says Associate Professor Mark Looi, deputy head of QUT's School
of Software Engineering and Data Communications.

"It just uses off-the-shelf hardware and you don't need to write
specific software, you just need to know the correct commands to use
with the software that's supplied. On a difficulty rating of one to 10,
it's probably a two," Looi says.
The vulnerability exists in all flavours of the 802.11b wireless
protocol and some types of 802.11g, including Apple's Airport Extreme
technology. It affects equipment from all manufacturers, running with
all operating systems.

The exploit allows users to jam all wireless devices within a one
kilometre radius using any wireless-enabled computing device and can
take down an entire network in seconds if the base station is within
range. The source of such an attack would be extremely difficult to
trace and network recovery is immediate, making it appear to
administrators as simply network congestion.

A hand-held device could be used to temporarily jam wireless security
cameras or disrupt a wireless network at a critical moment to create a
diversion or cover unauthorised activity. Such a device could be
pre-programmed or activated remotely using GPRS.
As the exploit can be targeted at specific networks, it could be used to
hijack users by jamming a wireless network and causing wireless devices
to automatically detect and connect to a fake network, the default
setting for most wireless devices.
"Any organisation that continues to use the standard wireless
technology, 802.11b, to operate critical infrastructure could be
considered negligent," Looi says.

Encryption and Medium Access Control address filtering is powerless to
stop such an attack, which targets devices using Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum technology.

The vulnerability takes advantage of the collision avoidance feature
used to minimise the likelihood of two devices transmitting
simultaneously. It causes all devices and access points within range to
behave as if the channel is always busy and defer data transmission.

"Normal frequency jamming needs high-powered, non-consumer grade
equipment, but we're using existing wireless network infrastructure,"
Looi says.  "Rather than jamming the whole frequency, we're tricking the
network into thinking the network is unavailable."

The Information Security Research Centre has been working with
Australia's national computer emergency response team, AusCERT, to alert
manufacturers since the discovery was made last November. After six
months, a defence is yet to be found.
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/17/1084646114738.html

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