Your 80211 wireless network has no clothes

The explosive growth in wireless networks over the last few years resembles the rapid growth of the Internet within the last decade. During the beginning of the commercialization of the Internet, organizations and individuals connected without concern for the security of their system or network. Over time, it became apparent that some form of security was required to prevent outsiders from exploiting the connected resources. To protect the internal resources, organizations usually purchased and installed an Internet firewall. We believe that the current wireless access points present a larger security problem than the early Internet connections. A large number of organizations, based on vendor literature, believe that the security provided by their deployed wireless access points is sufficient to prevent unauthorized access and use. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. While the current access points provide several security mechanisms, our work combined with the work of others show that ALL of these mechanisms are completely in-effective. As a result, organizations with deployed wireless networks are vulnerable to unauthorized use of, and access to, their internal infrastructure.