Leveraging SDN and WebRTC for Rogue Access Point Security

Abstract

Rogue access points (RAPs) are unauthorized devices connected to a network, providing unauthorized wireless access to one or more clients. Such devices pose significant risk to organizations, since they provide a convenient means for hackers and insiders to hide malicious or unsanctioned activities on industry, government, and campus networks. Yet, limitations inherent in traditional networks make detecting and removing such devices expensive, time consuming, and difficult to implement. For software-defined networks (SDNs), the risk of a network compromise due to RAPs is equally concerning, and methods for detecting RAPs within SDN architectures are needed. Hence, this paper leverages the capabilities of an SDN along with a trusted agent to detect and deny RAPs access to networks by using both generic and novel methods with minimal impact to performance. Three other contributions are included in this paper. They include: 1) utilizing an emerging Web architecture to detect hidden subnets; 2) developing the first, security-based, use case for Mininet-WiFi, a software-defined wireless network emulator; and 3) enhancing Ryuretic, a modular programming language for SDN application development.