www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us DESIGN OF A CUSTOM ENCRYPTION KEY GENERATOR TO SECURE WIRELESS NETWORKS HARINDER KAUR 1 & HARPREET KAUR 2 1 M.Tech. Student, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India 2 Assistant Professor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India ABSTRACT The wireless LANs have been deployed at many places, small or big, houses or commercial complexes mainly because of their ease of installation and use. The IEEE 802.11-based WLAN presents new challenges for network and information security administrators. Whereas the security requirements of wired Ethernet deployments are relatively simple, security of a WLAN is somewhat complex. 802.11-based WLANs broadcast radio-frequency data for the client stations to receive. Hence, there are complex security issues that involve augmenting the 802.11 standard. This work critically reviews main security flaws of Wired Equivalent Privacy and suggests a new approach of automatic key management and refresh of WEP key so that attacker could not get sufficient time to guess the key. KEYWORDS: Access Point, Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11i, Key Management, Local Area Networks, Network Interface Card, Radio-Frequency, RC4, Transmitter, Wired Equivalent Privacy, Wireless Local Area Networks I. INTRODUCTION Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is a wireless network that uses radio frequency technology instead of traditional coaxial. It has many merits such as handiness, high efficiency and low cost. Therefore, WLAN is widely used, especially when traditional network is difficult to install. But, at the same time WLANs have to face certain security issues such as leaking of electromagnetic wave or eavesdropping of data because in WLAN, electromagnetic wave is used as media to transmit data. Therefore, the security of WLAN is very important. Compared with traditional wired network, there is always a security threat while transmitting data through WLAN. It can’t prevent attacker from eavesdropping and modifying spitefully because the channel in WLAN is open. Also, electromagnetic wave is subject to attenuation when it is transmitted in air, hence the transmitted information may lose some data. Finally, it is easier that attackers conceal themselves as legit user because it is not necessary for users to connect network. Hence higher communication secrecy capability is needed when utilizing WLAN to communicate. Unlike the wired Ethernet, with 802.11 based technologies, one needs to consider radio frequency related security issues, since the data carried by a WLAN is accessible to anyone within range of the transmitter device. In an effort to preserve security while using wireless networks, IEEE designed the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol in their 802.11 specifications to offer some wired security like services, such as data privacy, integrity and authentication. The WEP protocol acts as an authentication method assuming that only authorized mobile stations share the correct key with the communicating device. Unfortunately, the WEP protocol has some security deficiencies which allow an unauthorized third party to determine the WEP encryption. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) was proposed by the Wi-Fi Alliance Group and IEEE to address the known WEP issues. WPA introduced two modes of deployments: WPA International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering (IJECE) ISSN(P): 2278-9901; ISSN(E): 2278-991X Vol. 5, Issue 5, Aug - Sep 2016; 15-22 © IASET