An Empirical Study of Wi-Fi Security and
Performance in Morocco WarDriving in Rabat
A. Sebbar, SE. Boulahya, G. Mezzour, M. Boulmalf
Presented by
Anass SEBBAR
2nd International Conference on Electrical and
Information Technologies ICEIT 2016
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WIFI Widely Used, but Poses many Challenges
• Many people access the Internet over WIFI
• Easy and simple
• Here at the hotel
• WIFI poses many security & performance challenges
• Unsecure WIFI
• Steal bandwidth
• See visited web pages & steak cookies
• Attacker can position itself between user & access point
=> See passwords, credit cards, email if user doesn’t detect certificate problem
• Performance issues
• Interferences (use the same channel)
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Important to Study State of WIFI in Morocco
• It is possible to set up WIFI properly
• Security: use WPA2
• Performance: use different channels
• Unfortunately, WIFI not always properly used
• Security: unsecure WIFI, WEP
• Performance: everyboday uses the same channel
• Research question:
• What is the state of security and performance of WIFI networks in Morocco?
• Morocco is ICT regional leader: conferences, companies
• Care about network security & peformance
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Study Overview
• 1st academic field study about WIFI security & peformance in Rabat
• Wardriving
• Drive through streets (antenna & tools)
• Collect info about access points
• Security
• Channel use
• Vendors
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Wardriving - Trajectory
• Hay Nahda & Hay Riad (20 km)
• Hay Sinaii, Zair street, Mahaj Riad, and Annakhil street
• Trajectory contains
• Administrative area
• Administrations
• Industry headquarters
• Residential rich area
• Zone villa
• Residential urban area
• Appartment buildings
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Wardriving - Tools
• The set up we use to perform WarDriving:
• Use a laptop that runs inSSIDer
• Connect a 7bB omnidirectional antenna to
laptop using Wi-Fi PC card
• Place the antenna outside our vehicle
• We drive at a speed less than 11 km/h
• To minimize the consequences of the
Doppler effect on our results
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Wardriving – Information Collection
• Data about ~ 10,000 access points
• Security
• No security, WEP => unsecure
• WPA, WPA2 => secure
• Channel
• Informs about congestion level
• RSSI
• Measure of signal strength
• Vendor
• Access point market in Morocco
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Trajectory
• The trajectory contains :
• Administrative areas:
• Many administrations,
• Headquarters of large companies,
• Rich district
• Mainly large,
• Luxurious houses,
• Urbain district
• Mainly apartment buildings,
• Perform a 20km path between HAY NAHDA and HAY RIAD
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Most WIFI use Proper Security
• Vast majority use WPA or WPA2
• Good news => security
• Small % use WEP
• They believe it is secure
• Small % use no security
• Lack of awareness or car
• Hotspots
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More Security in the Administrative District
• Better security in administrative district
• Possible reason: use of professionals
• Better security in big houses compared
with apartment buildings
• Possible reason: more awareness
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Majority of Networks have a Usable Quality
• Collect RSSI & use table
• Reported quality < actual quality
• Distance
• Doppler effect
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Channel 1 most Common
• This figure Shows the list of
used Wi-Fi channels :
• 27% networks use channel 1
• 23% of networks use
channel 6
• 23% use channel 11
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Types of WIFI vendors in Rabat
• Always found that the default
configuration is provided by the
manufactures, the default
name AP and SSID broadcast.
• Thomson Telecom is the leader
with 26% because it’s access
points formed by the service
provider in Morocco
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Related Work
• Many wardriving studies in countries other Morocco
• First wardriving was carried in 2002
• American cities (boston, San Diego)
• Norway
• Barcelona
• 32 areas in nine contries.
• Example: Wifi networks that use appropriete security
• 76% in LONDON
• 64% in DUBAI
• WIFI security in these countries comparable to Morocco
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Conclusion
• First academic study of WIFI security & peformance in Rabat
• WIFI security in the areas studied in Rabat is comparable to WIFI
security in developed countries
• Majority of WIFI networks use channel 1
• Relieve channel 6, but not optimal (should use tools)
• Majority of WIFI networks have a usable quality
• Policy recommendations
• Awareness programs about WIFI security and tools to choose optimal channel
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