Testing wireless network security
Authentication, separation and the surroundings of your wireless networks. The decisive question is what a guest client actually reaches once it has joined.
Wireless does not end at the property line
A company wireless network is reachable from the street, from the car park and from the building next door. That makes it the only network access for which an attacker does not have to enter the building.
We test the authentication, the separation of the networks, and what a client reaches once it has joined successfully. The interesting part is almost always the last one.
Does the separation between guest and production hold
The company network with 802.1X and the guest network without authentication stand side by side, and on paper they are separated. Whether that also holds for the traffic is only shown by a client that tries.
We join the guest network and check what is reachable from there: printers, management interfaces, file shares, and in the worst case production. Along with the question of whether guest devices can see one another, because that too is a separation that was intended.
Three levels
Authentication, separation and surroundings. Each can hold on its own and still fail in combination.
Authentication
Method and configuration: 802.1X with certificate validation, or a shared key that has been the same for years. Plus the attempt to capture credentials.
Separation
Guest against company, client against client, wireless against the production network. What gets tested is the traffic, not the configuration.
Surroundings
Foreign access points carrying your network name, open management interfaces on the devices themselves, and how far the signal actually reaches.
How a wireless test runs
A day per site, more for larger premises. Radio cannot be tested remotely, so we are on site.
Fix sites and networks
Which premises, which network names, and which of them are actually yours. Plus a contact on site and the written release.
Survey the surroundings
Which access points transmit, with which method, and how far the signal reaches. Foreign access points carrying your network name stand out here.
Join and move on
We join, on the guest network and where possible on the company network, and check what is reachable from there: printers, management interfaces, file shares, and in the worst case production.
Report
Findings per site, separated by whether the cause lies in the authentication, the separation or the surroundings. The three need different measures.
Common questions about wireless testing
Yes. Radio cannot be tested remotely. We need a day per site, more for larger premises.
Then the finding is predictable, and the question is the migration. In that case we mostly test what lies behind the network, so that it is clear how urgent the move to 802.1X is.
Certifications and memberships.
Talk to us.
A first conversation usually takes 30 minutes. We look at where you stand and tell you frankly whether we are the right partner.