Techworld's Peter Judge reports that Dr. Jeyanthi Hall of Ottawa's Carleton University has discovered a method for uniquely identifying any Wi-Fi device, making it impossible for hackers to hide behind a fake MAC address.

Hall says every wireless device has a unique signal "fingerprint" produced by variations in the manufacturing process for silicon components.

"As a doctoral student, Dr. Hall analysed the RF signals of fifteen devices from six manufacturers, and found it was possible to distinguish clearly, even between devices from the same manufacturer," Judge writes. "Using 'transceiverprints,' Dr. Hall got a detection rate of 95 percent and a false positive rate of zero, according to papers submitted to various conferences, including IEEE events on wireless and security."

"Limiting network access to specific devices using MACs has been a possible security technique for some time, and is included in many Wi-Fi systems," Judge writes. "However, it has mostly been dismissed by security professionals, as it is easy to spoof the MAC address of a device. Comparing the MAC to a pre-recorded transceiverprint would make an access control list based on devices feasible again."

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