Disable Broadcast Ssid

The following scenario shows how to disable SSID broadcasting, which stops the device from announcing the SSID in the beacons associated to the configured network.

Disable SSID broadcasting

Description

In this example, a WLAN interface will be created on top of the 2.4GHz radio module in access-point mode. Then, SSID broadcasting will be disabled be means of the disable-broadcast-ssid command.

Scenario

Example 1

Step 1: Run command configure at DUT0 and expect this output: Step 2: Run command delete interfaces wlan at DUT0 and expect this output:

Show output

Nothing to delete (the specified node does not exist)

Step 3: Run command delete controllers wlan at DUT0 and expect this output:

Show output

Nothing to delete (the specified node does not exist)

Step 4: Run command commit at DUT0 and expect this output: Step 5: Set the following configuration in DUT0:

set controllers wlan radios wifi1 band 2.4GHz
set controllers wlan radios wifi1 channel 1
set interfaces bridge br0
set interfaces wlan wlan4 bridge-group bridge br0
set interfaces wlan wlan4 phy wifi1
set interfaces wlan wlan4 type access-point security akm none
set interfaces wlan wlan4 type access-point ssid network_2.4GHz
set system login user admin authentication encrypted-password '$6$GSjsCj8gHLv$/VcqU6FLi6CT2Oxn0MJQ2C2tqnRDrYKNF8HIYWJp68nvXvPdFccDsT04.WtigUONbKYrgKg8d6rEs8PjljMkH0'

Note

By default, WLAN beacons are periodically announced so that any WLAN station can detect the presence of an access point.

Step 6: Configure the MON device to listen for packets on channel 1 for 10s seconds discarding all packets not sent by DUT0. Then, apply the following filter to the captured traffic:

wlan.ssid == network_2.4GHz

At least one packet with the provided criteria must be present.

Step 7: Modify the following configuration lines in DUT0:

set interfaces wlan wlan4 type access-point disable-broadcast-ssid

Warning

Disabling SSID broadcasting is considered a weak security measure, since an attacker can just capture the WLAN traffic to detect the access point’s presence.

Step 8: Expect a failure in the following command: Configure the MON device to listen for packets on channel 1 for 10s seconds discarding all packets not sent by DUT0. Then, apply the following filter to the captured traffic:

wlan.ssid == network_2.4GHz

At least one packet with the provided criteria must be present.

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