Risk Assessment & Mitigation Flashcards

Which type of wireless attack involves an adversary inserting themselves between a wireless client and AP to intercept and potentially modify traffic?

Answer: Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack

A Man-in-the-Middle attack positions the attacker between the client and AP, allowing interception, eavesdropping, and potential modification of wireless communications.

What is the MOST critical step when conducting a wireless risk assessment for a healthcare facility under HIPAA requirements?

Answer: Identifying all wireless devices that transmit or store ePHI and assessing their security controls

HIPAA requires a thorough risk analysis that specifically identifies all systems containing ePHI, making discovery of wireless devices handling patient data the critical foundational step.

A wireless security audit reveals that an AP is broadcasting on a DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) channel without proper radar detection implementation. What is the primary regulatory and operational risk?

Answer: FCC violations and potential interference with weather radar or military systems

DFS channels are regulated to prevent interference with radar systems; improper implementation can cause FCC regulatory violations and actual interference with critical radar infrastructure.

During a risk assessment, an analyst discovers that the wireless network uses 802.11n with TKIP encryption. What is the specific risk and recommended mitigation?

Answer: TKIP limits bandwidth and should be replaced with AES/CCMP for both security and performance

TKIP was designed as a temporary fix for WEP vulnerabilities and has known weaknesses; replacing it with AES/CCMP (used in WPA2) improves both security strength and network performance.

What does a wireless risk assessment's 'threat modeling' phase primarily involve?

Answer: Identifying potential adversaries, their capabilities, and likely attack vectors against the wireless infrastructure

Threat modeling identifies who the likely attackers are, what capabilities they possess, and what methods they might use, providing the foundation for selecting appropriate countermeasures.

An enterprise uses a wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS). An alert fires for 'channel scan pattern detected.' What type of threat does this MOST likely indicate?

Answer: An attacker performing active wireless reconnaissance or site survey

Systematic channel scanning across all 802.11 channels is a characteristic behavior of wireless reconnaissance tools used by attackers to map the RF environment before launching attacks.

A risk mitigation plan recommends implementing 802.1X with EAP-TLS. What specific vulnerability does this address compared to PEAP-MSCHAPv2?

Answer: EAP-TLS eliminates credential theft risk by using mutual certificate authentication instead of passwords

EAP-TLS uses client and server certificates for mutual authentication, eliminating the risk of password theft or credential compromise that exists with password-based methods like PEAP-MSCHAPv2.