Communications of the ACM
How Anybody Can Measure Your Computer's Wi-Fi Fingerprint
A new method can identify a computer by the way it accesses Wi-Fi resources.
Credit: escanfingerprinting.ca
Computer security experts at the Technicolor Security and Content Protection Labs in Rennes, France, have discovered a method of uniquely identifying a computer by the way it accesses Wi-Fi resources.
Their technique could help protect wireless networks from attacks such as MAC spoofing, in which a hacker hijacks a computer's MAC address to utilize its authorization.
The researchers found that most computers have a "Wi-Fi fingerprint" with unique characteristics such as transmission rates and frame inter-arrival time. The team analyzed all the wireless traffic broadcast on a particular Wi-Fi channel in a number of different environments, using a standard wireless card that would be accessible to ordinary users.
"We find that the network parameters transmission time and frame inter-arrival time perform best in comparison to the other network parameters considered," the researchers say.
Under ordinary circumstances, such as using their office network, the researchers were able to identify machines with up to 95-percent accuracy. Under challenging conditions, such as during a conference with many users accessing a network simultaneously, the team was able to accurately identify up to 56 percent of devices.
The researchers note wireless fingerprinting could be improved in the future and applied to a range of situations.
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