An Accurate Fake Access Point Detection Method Based on Deviation of Beacon Time Interval

Abstract

As wireless networks being prevalent, rogue access points (AP) become a serious security issue. Among various rogue APs, a fake AP with fully forging the SSID and MAC address of a legitimate AP is the hardest thing to detect and the highest probability of causing security breach. Among the past academic papers, which scholars had published, mainly relied on statistics of packets to detect fake APs. They are apt to trigger false alarms. To measure more precisely, this research proposes an algorithm that is based on the interval, serial number, and timestamp of beacons. In our analysis, even the hackers deliberately synchronize the sequence numbers and timestamp of both legal and fake APs, we are still able to exactly identify whether a fake AP exists or not.