Secure Wireless Design for a Multi-Tier Enterprise: Practical Flaws, Tests, and a Defence-In-Depth Proposal
Abstract
This paper carries out a practical and theoretical evaluation of security weaknesses of IEEE 802.11 implementations and stipulates hardened measures in a large business enterprise, which has numerous levels of access. Part A documents vulnerability studies and exploits client-side vulnerabilities (Kr00k, FragAttacks, PMKID), vulnerability research and exploits on SSID/MAC filtering concealment, and vulnerability research and exploits on encryption (WEP/WPA2). Part B selects and rationalizes a security stack WPA3-Enterprise (SAE/EAP-TLS), 802.1X/RADIUS, Protected Management Frames (PMF), certificate lifecycle, NAC, segmentation, and monitoring with residual risks and mitigation trade-offs. Conclusions correspond to likely threats and deployment constraints. This paper integrates both controlled experiments in the lab (using packet captures, PMKID captures, FragAttacks reproduction experiments) and tool-based testing (using hcxdumptool, hcxtools, Hashcat, Wireshark) to quantify the exploitability and the operational consequences, and provides reproducible results, implementation suggestions, and implementation plans to help security teams prioritize mitigations; it also includes measures of time-to-compromise and attacker resource requirements.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Wireless Networks and Protocols
Network Security and Intrusion Detection
Cybersecurity and Information Systems
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Publication date
- 28 January 2026
- Language
- EN