WPFD: Active User-Side Detection of Evil Twins

Abstract

The bothersome evil twin problem has an active user-side remedy in the form of the Wireless Packet Forwarding Detector (WPFD). The evil twin issue can lead to further security problems, including man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. Open public Wi-Fi connections have provided potential answers to this issue, although they often need more data that people either cannot get or are too pricey for regular users. The solution that we created does not require these standards. It allows users’ notebooks to be used to check for evil twins. We have succeeded in developing a user-side detection system that can successfully identify the presence of an evil twin. The packet forwarding behavior generated by the evil twin and the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol are both used by the WPFD. It can identify evil twins without a hitch when we utilize accessible Wi-Fi settings in public spaces or IoT smart homes with unencrypted WLANs (Wireless Local Area Network). However, neither additional data nor a wireless network administrator’s assistance is needed. We compare our work to various publications on popular Rogue Access Points (APs) or IoT (Internet of Things) smart homes. The WPFD does not require any extra setup to install on the host of any end user. According to experimental findings, the WPFD true positive and true negative rates are 100% even when Received Signal Strength Index (RSSI) is 45%.

Keywords

• Wi-Fi
• evil twin
• rogue access point
• wireless security
• WLAN
• IoT