Combating wireless LAN MAC-layer address spoofing with fingerprinting methods

Abstract

Unwanted use of wireless networks has become a well-known problem in recent years. One attempt to solve this problem is the use of access control lists, which are asso-ciated with accredited MAC addresses. But since MAC addresses can be spoofed very easily, improved mecha-nisms are needed to attest the uniqueness of a dedicated wireless station. Today, all known approaches are based on the idea to generate NIC-specific profiles derived from invariant NIC-characteristics. In doing so, unique fea-tures are either extracted from RF-components or from the timing behavior of the MAC-chip. To give a review and to classify all proposed approaches, we start with a short introduction to all underlying ideas and will con-clude with a comparison of these mechanisms.