News
ACM WiNTECH 2017
Best Paper Award for CRISP-researchers of TU Darmstadt
CRISP-researchers Prof. Matthias Hollick, Matthias Schulz and Daniel Wegemer, all CYSEC [at] TU Darmstadt, received the Best Paper Award at 11th ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental evaluation & CHaracterization (WiNTECH) for their paper "Nexmon: Build Your Own Wi-Fi Testbeds With Low-Level MAC and PHY-Access Using Firmware Patches on Off-the-Shelf Mobile Devices". The researchers work at research group Secure Mobile Networking Group (SEEMOO), leaded by Prof. Matthias Hollick.
Abstract:
The most widespread Wi-Fi enabled devices are smartphones. They are mobile, close to people and available in large quantities, which makes them perfect candidates for real-world wireless testbeds. Unfortunately, most smartphones contain closed-source FullMAC Wi-Fi chips that hinder the modification of lower-layer Wi-Fi mechanisms and the implementation of new algorithms. To enable researchers' access to lower-layer frame processing and advanced physical-layer functionalities on Broadcom Wi-Fi chips, we developed the Nexmon firmware patching framework. It allows users to create firmware modifications for embedded ARM processors using C code and to change the behavior of Broadcom's real-time processor using Assembly. Currently, our framework supports five Broadcom chips available in smartphones and Raspberry Pis. Our example patches enable monitor mode, frame injection, handling of ioctls, ucode compression and flashpatches. In a simple ping offloading example, we demonstrate how handling pings in firmware reduces power consumption by up to 165 mW and is nine times faster than in the kernel on a Nexus 5. Using Nexmon, researchers can unleash the full capabilities of off-the-shelf Wi-Fi devices.
ACM WiNTECH 2017 took place October 20, 2017 in Snowbird, Utah, USA.
A copy of the paper is available from ACM digital library and you can watch a recording of the talk on Youtube.