Discovery of rogue access point location in wireless network environments

• US 8,089,974 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Calhoun, Patrice R., Friday, Robert J., O'Hara, Robert B. Jr., Galloway, Brett, Frascone, David Anthony, Dietrich, Paul F., Jain, Sudhir Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, DUC CHI
• Application Number:
  US11/965,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20080101283A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/122 Counter-measures against attacks; Protection against rogue devices

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses and systems facilitating location or containment of rogue or unauthorized access points on wireless computer network environments. Embodiments of the present invention support one to a plurality of rogue containment methodologies. A first rogue containment type involves identification of the physical connection of the rogue access point to the wired network infrastructure and, thus, allows for disabling of that physical connection to contain the rogue access point. Other rogue containment methods involve wireless techniques for containing the effect of rogue access points. In some embodiments, the present invention provides methods, apparatuses and systems facilitating network location of rogue access points to determine whether one or more rogue containment methodologies should be applied. As discussed below, the rogue location and containment functionality described herein can be applied to a wide variety of wireless network system architectures.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising

a network interface, and

a rogue containment module coupled to the network interface, wherein the rogue containment device is operative to:

detect a rogue access point,

identify at least one authorized access point that neighbors the rogue access point;

select an authorized access point from the at least one authorized access point in the identifying step;

instruct the selected authorized access point to establish a wireless connection between the selected authorized access point and the rogue access point;

cause the selected authorized access point to wirelessly transmit a rogue location discovery packet from the selected authorized access point to the rogue access point, wherein the rogue location discovery packet is addressed to a network device; and

monitor for receipt of the rogue location discovery packet at the network device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the network device is the authorized access point.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the network device is a central control element.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

apply at least one rogue containment method, if the rogue location discovery packet is received at the network device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

report the detected rogue access point, if the rogue location discovery packet is not received at the network device within a threshold period of time.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network interface is coupled to a wired computer network implemented by at least one network device operative to switch or route data units between devices connected thereto, the data units including a source address and a destination address, wherein the at least one network device comprises at least two ports to which other devices connect, and wherein the at least one network device is operative to store the source addresses of the data units encountered at the ports of the at least one network device, and wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

if the rogue location discovery packet is not received at the network device within a threshold period of time, then

determine the address of at least one rogue client associated with the rogue access point;

and

identify the port to which the rogue access point is connected by querying, using the addresses of the at least one rogue client in the determining step, the at least one network device for the port at which data units sourced from the at least one rogue client were encountered.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

disable the identified port.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

locate the edge port, if more than one network device responds in the querying step.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the at least one network device is an Ethernet switch.

10. An apparatus comprising

a network interface, and

a rogue containment module coupled to the network interface, wherein the rogue containment device is operative to:

detect a rogue access point,

select an authorized access point that neighbors the rogue access point, wherein the authorized access point is connected to a wired computer network, the wired computer network including dynamic network address assignment functionality;

cause the selected authorized access point to obtain a dynamic computer network address, establish a wireless connection between the selected authorized access point and the rogue access point, and wirelessly transmit a rogue location discovery packet from the selected authorized access point to the rogue access point, wherein the rogue location discovery packet is logically addressed to a network device connected to the wired computer network; and

monitor for receipt of the rogue location discovery packet at the network device.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the network device is the authorized access point.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the network device is a central control element.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

apply at least one rogue containment method, if the rogue location discovery packet is received at the network device.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

report the detected rogue access point, if the rogue location discovery packet is not received at the network device within a threshold period of time.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the rogue location discovery packet includes a digital signature.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to compare the obtained dynamic network address to the network address of the network device to determine whether the network device and the rogue access point are connected to the same subnet.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

transmit an Address Resolution Protocol request to resolve the link layer address of a gateway node, if the network device and the rogue access point are on different subnets;

and

set the link layer destination address of the rogue location discovery packet to the link layer address in the response to the Address Resolution Protocol request.

18. An apparatus comprising

a network interface, and

a rogue containment module coupled to the network interface, wherein the rogue containment device is operative to:

detect a rogue access point,

observe at least one data frame including a logical network address of a wireless client associated with the rogue access point;

select an identified logical network address;

select an authorized access point that neighbors the rogue access point;

causing the selected authorized access point to establish a wireless connection between the selected authorized access point and the rogue access point, and wirelessly transmit a rogue location discovery packet from the selected authorized access point to the rogue access point, wherein the rogue location discovery packet is logically addressed to a network device connected to the computer network; and

wherein the source address of the rogue location discovery packet is set to the logical network address of the selected wireless client; and

monitor for receipt of the rogue location discovery packet at the network device.

19. An apparatus comprising

a network interface, and

a rogue containment module coupled to the network interface, wherein the rogue containment device is operative to:

detect a rogue access point,

determine the address of at least one rogue client associated with the rogue access point; and

query, using the addresses of the at least one rogue client in the determining step, at least one network device for a port at which data units sourced from the at least one rogue client were encountered, wherein the at least one network device operative to switch or route data units between devices connected thereto, the data units including a source address and a destination address, wherein the at least one network device comprises at least two ports to which other devices connect, and wherein the at least one network device is operative to store the source addresses of the data units encountered at the ports of the at least one network device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

if the at least one network device responds with an identified port, disable the identified port.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the rogue containment module is further operative to

locate an edge port, if more than one network device responds to a query.

22. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the at least one network device is an Ethernet switch.

23. A method comprising:

detecting a rogue access point;

transmitting by a central control element of a wireless network, one or more rogue location discovery packets through the rogue access point to an authorized host connected to a first network; and

monitoring the first network for receipt of the one or more rogue location discovery packets to determine whether the rogue access point is connected to the first network.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising disabling access to the first network for the detected rogue access point if the rogue access point is determined to be connected to the first network.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the authorized host is the central control element.