Security of Wireless Networks AS10

Autumn semester 2010, course no. 252-1411-00, (4 ECTS)
Lectures: Tuesday, 13-15h, in ML H 37.1.
First lecture: 21.09.2010, Last lecture: 21.12.2010
Exercises: every second Friday, 13-15h, in CAB E 87.2 (enter via 88.1).
First exercise: 01.10.2010

Course responsible: Prof. Srdjan Capkun (capkuns@inf.ethz.ch)
Assistants on the course: Ghassan Karame (karameg@inf.ethz.ch), Davide Zanetti (zanettid@inf.ethz.ch), Claudio Marforio (maclaudi@student.ethz.ch) and Joel Reardon (reardonj@student.ethz.ch).

Course Announcements

- 06.12.2010: The scheduling of the oral exams is on-line
- 22.11.2010: Information on the SOWN exams and on the cantenna presentations are now on-line.
- 28.09.2010: The lab manual, information on the Cantenna exercise as well as lab assignment and scheduling are now on-line.
- 08.09.2010: The website is online.

Course description:

Core elements: Wireless communication channel, Wireless network architectures and protocols, Attacks on wireless networks, Protection techniques.

Course content: Wireless channel basics. Wireless electronic warfare: jamming and target tracking. Basic security protocols in cellular, WLAN and multi-hop networks. Recent advances in security of multi-hop networks; RFID privacy challenges and solutions.

Learning objectives: After this course, the students should be able to: describe and classify security goals and attacks in wireless networks; describe security architectures of the following wireless systems and networks: 802.11, GSM/UMTS, RFID, ad hoc/sensor networks; reason about security protocols for wireless network; implement mechanisms to secure 802.11 networks.

Evaluation:
Oral exam = 80% of the grade
20% exercises and related reports

Detailed content:

1. Wireless Electronic Warfare
   basics (wireless channel equations)
   jamming and antijamming
   low-probability of intercept signals (LPI)
   source localization techniques
   Related exercise: cantenna
2. Security of WiFi networks
   802.11 architecture and protocols
   (un)authorized access: MAC filtering, WEP, WPA, 802.1X, 802.11i
   Selfish behavior in WiFi networks
   Related exercises: WiFi security issues
3. Security of Cellular networks
   GSM and UMTS security architectures
   Attacks on GSM networks
4. Security in wireless multi-hop networks
   architectures and protocols
   naming and addressing
   key establishment/management
   secure distributed computing
   thwarting selfish behavior
5. Secure RFID systems
   readers and tags
   security issues: privacy, forgery, sabotage
   RFID security protocols
6. Special (research) topics
   wireless device pairing
   broadcast authentication
   secure localization and time synchronization
   ....

Course Material

Lecture 1: Introduction, Basic Security Notions, Wireless Communication Basics: pdf
Lecture 2: Jamming / Jamming Resistance: pdf
Lecture 3: Jamming-resistant Broadcast with and w/o Secrets: pdf (covered slides 1-33)
Lecture 4: Anti-Jamming Communication for Key Establishment: pdf
Lecture 5: Secure Time Synchronization, Secure Localization pdf
Lecture 6: Secure Localization pdf
Lecture 7: Secure Localization, Network Access (WiFi) pdf
Lecture 8: Network Access (WiFi, Cellular) pdf
Lecture 9: Device Identification pdf
Lecture 10: Broadcast Authentication pdf
Lecture 11: Cheating and Cooperation pdf

Additional reading

• D. Adamy, "Ew 101: A First Course in Electronic Warfare", Artech House Publishers, ISBN 9781580531696, 2001.
• D. Adamy, "Ew 102: A Second Course in Electronic Warfare", Artech House Publishers, ISBN 9781580536868, 2004.
• L. Buttyán and J.-P. Hubaux, "Security and Cooperation in Wireless Networks", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521873710, Release 1.5.1, July 2007.

Lab Exercises

The lab manual can be found here.

The lab instructions can be found here.

Here you can find the student assignment to the lab sessions as well as the sessions scheduling.
In case your name doesn't appear on that list, please make sure to attend the first lab session on the 1st of October or send us an email asap.

Information on the Cantenna exercise can be found on these slides and here.

Cantenna Presentations

The last lecture of the security of wireless network course on the 21st of December 2010 will be dedicated to the presentations of your cantennas.

For the cantenna presentations, each one of the lab groups will hold a 5 minutes (!) presentation about its work.

More information here.

Oral Exams

The oral exams will take place on Wednesday 15th, Thursday 16th, and Friday 17th December 2010 in Prof. Capkun's office (CNB F 102.2).

Here you can find the exams scheduling.

The length of a single exam will be between 15 and 20 minutes.