AirMagnet Wi-Fi Security Tool Takes Aim At Drones

alphadogg (971356) writes "In its quest to help enterprises seek out and neutralize all threats to their Wi-Fi networks, AirMagnet is now looking to the skies. In a free software update to its AirMagnet Enterprise product last week, the Wi-Fi security division of Fluke Networks added code specifically crafted to detect the Parrot AR Drone, a popular unmanned aerial vehicle that costs a few hundred dollars and can be controlled using a smartphone or tablet. Drones themselves don't pose any special threat to Wi-Fi networks, and AirMagnet isn't issuing air pistols to its customers to shoot them down. The reason the craft are dangerous is that they can be modified to act as rogue access points and sent into range of a victim's wireless network, potentially breaking into a network to steal data."

Comments

Makes Perfect Sense

[QBasicer]

Instead of fixing a vulnerability or weakness in wifi, lets prevent drones from flying nearby. Because you can totally trust ALL your employees not to plug in a router to perform a similar attack.

Re:Makes Perfect Sense

[ledow]

Anyone who worries about wireless security and hasn't yet deployed WPA2-Enterprise and VLANs deserves everything they get.

Seriously, an employee plugging in a router? ALARM BELLS GO OFF IN IT ROOM.

An employee sets up a duplicate wireless network with the same SSID?

Weird. None of the connection policies match, so nothing officially supplied by IT will connect to it. And employees "might" connect to it, manually, sure. If it wasn't that the wireless AP's around the place have spotted the intruder, emailled me, triangulated the position of the AP, flooded it off the airwaves, and you'd have to re-type in all your RADIUS / WPA keys into it in order for it to actually let you CONNECT without warnings anyway.

It's just not a problem if you are serious about your wireless deployment. If you're not serious, that's the problem.

I'm an IT guy that works in schools, with hostile users, some of them living on-premises, willing to break all the rules, some of whom have built their own drones to fly around the school premises, and this isn't an issue I'd be concerned about.

For a start, the Cisco Meraki gear I use would "contain" any such network, and it would warn me, and it would even put a little pinpoint on a wireless heatmap if I so desired to tell me where they are.

The rest is just taking a smartphone with a free app, walking to that point, and disciplining whoever I found there / taking down the drone and waiting for someone to come claim it.

Hey look old technology

[i kan reed]

Wait! The old technology is attached to an autonomous quadrotor. Guess I'd better panic.

This Parrot has ceased to be!

[Irate Engineer]

Lovely plumage though.

I've got a similar idea in the works...

[jeffb (2.718)]

It's a receiver to detect the EM signature from the onboard electronics of a Prius.

See, I've heard that it's possible for a Prius driver to run over kids who are playing in the street. So I've designed this receiver that fits into a kiddy backpack, and sounds an alarm when there's a Prius nearby. That way, when my kids are playing in the street and a Prius approaches, they'll hear the alarm. I guess then they can get out of the street, but what I'm really looking for is a way to ban Priuses from driving on my street. After all, I'm a responsible parent who's keenly aware of the dangers Priuses pose to kids who play in the street.

Battery lasts for only 12 minutes

[LongearedBat]

I have an AR Drone 2, and the standard battery lasts for maximum 12 minutes (1000 mAh). I've ordered a new battery that holds 1500 mAh. Looking forward to see if it lasts for 18 minutes.

How much damage can one do with that? Seems easier to sneak up close and hide in a bush while cracking in to someones network using a laptop.

Boring

[c]

I want to see a security tool which hijacks the drone control connection, lands it on my roof, and shuts it down so it won't leave.

I can't quite decide if the followup should be "call the police", "hold drone ransom" or "just keep it", but I'm sure I'd think of something.