Detection and localization of illicit wireless communication in an exam room through passive signal reconnaissance

Abstract

More and more of the examination on our universities are becoming digial. With that comes challenges to maintain the secuirity of the exams and to keep it fair for all students. In this project, the requirement was to develop a system for signal reconnaissance and detection of unauthorized transmitters and receivers. The system uses a router setup on a local network, 4 PCs, where at least three have a wireless network card that can be put into monitor mode. It also requires ethernet or a second network interface on at least 3 of the PCs. The result is a prototype system that can scan Wi-Fi 4 and 5 signals and then find the unauthorized signals within it. The system estimates the position of the signal source. The system in it’s current state can’t be built to cover more features such as Bluetooth or mobile networks. The result of the system was mixed. The system in itself worked well, however the calculated positions where not as accurate as aimed for. There are a number of possible reasons for this, which is discussed in the discussion chapter. The testing that was done could’ve been done more thoroughly. Without more solid testing it is hard to say why the localization algoritm is giving bad values.