A hybrid cryptosystem based on WEP for 802.11 networks

Abstract

Wireless is the next generation networking technology. The security of such technology is very critical because its physical layer is the electro-magnetic waves that can be easily intercepted by anyone. The original security protocol for 802.11 wireless networks is called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). It is a protocol that is based on symmetric-key encryption algorithm RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4). Unfortunately, this protocol had many flaws that made it exposed to many attacks. This paper presents a set of improvements for WEP, which include key management and distribution, and authentication. These improvements convert WEP to a hybrid cryptosystem, a system that is based on both a symmetric-key algorithm and an asymmetric-key algorithm.