F Project
F Project
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
Project Report
BY
(SC20A892)
SUPERVISOR
JULY 2024
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CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this report entitled “Design and Implement a secured University
network with AAA using Mikrotik” is the original work of Ebong Halle Etoh with
registration number SC20A892, student at the Department of Computer Science at the
University of Buea. All borrowed ideas and materials have been acknowledged by means of
reference and citations. The report was supervised in accordance with the procedures laid
down by the University of Buea. It has been read and approved by:
Supervisor
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DECLARATION
This report has been written by me and has not received any previous academic credit at this
or any other situation
SC20A892
Computer Science
Faculty of Science
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I will like to thank the Almighty God for giving me the strength and wisdom to do
this project from beginning to the end. Next, I will like to acknowledge my supervisor Dr.
Leke for helping me through out this project. Finally, I will like to thank my father and
mother Mr. and Mrs. Ebong Halle for always having faith and believing in me. My brothers
and sisters for always being available when ever I need help and to my friends who never left
my side
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DEDICATION
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ABSTRACT
This project aims to design and implement a secure university campus network using
Mikrotik RouterOS and its AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting)
capabilities. The goal is to create a scalable, reliable, and highly secured network
infrastructure that can effectively manage and control access to the university's resources.
The project will involve a comprehensive assessment of the existing network, development of
a detailed network design, and the implementation of a robust AAA system using Mikrotik's
RADIUS server. Additionally, the project will address security concerns by implementing
access control lists, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and secure connectivity
options. The successful completion of this project will result in a highly secured and
efficiently managed university campus network, providing a reliable and controlled
environment for students, faculty, and staff to access necessary resources, and serve as a
blueprint for other educational institutions seeking to enhance their network security and
access management.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATION......................................................................................................................i
DECLARATION.......................................................................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................................iii
DEDICATION..........................................................................................................................iv
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................v
LIST OF ABREVATIONS......................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
1.1. Historical Background.................................................................................................1
1.2. Significance of Project................................................................................................2
1.3. PROBLEM REPORT..................................................................................................3
1.4. Aim and objectives of Project.....................................................................................3
1.5. Scope...........................................................................................................................4
1.6. DEFINITIONS............................................................................................................4
CHAPTER TWO.......................................................................................................................5
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................5
2.1. Theoretical Framework..................................................................................................7
2.2. Conceptual Framework...................................................................................................8
2.3. Empirical Framework......................................................................................................9
CHAPTER THREE..................................................................................................................13
METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN.........................................................................................13
3.1. METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................13
3.2. DESIGN........................................................................................................................15
CHAPTER FOUR....................................................................................................................16
IMPLEMENTATION..............................................................................................................16
CHAPTER FIVE......................................................................................................................22
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.......................................................................22
What we were unable to do......................................................................................................22
5.2. REFFERENCE..........................................................................................................23
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LIST OF ABREVATIONS
IP Internet Protocol
PC Personal Computer
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Historical Background
In today’s interconnected world, where technology reigns supreme, the need to robust
network security measures has become paramount. This project aims to provide a detailed
and engaging guide to implement network security in a university campus network with AAA
using mikrotik.by following these steps and best practices, students can fortify their digital
infrastructure against potential treats and protect sensitive information.
Network security is the practice of protecting networks and their infrastructure from
unauthorized access, misuse, or disruption. It encompasses various technologies, polices, and
practices aimed at ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. By
employing robust network security measures, universities can safe guard their digital assets
against cyber threats.
The authentication process is based on each user having a unique set of criteria for gaining
access. AAA server compares the user’s credentials in the authentication request with the
user credential store in database. If the credentials match, the user is granted access to the
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network. If the credentials don’t match, authentication fails, and the user is denied network
access.
Once authenticated, the user is limited to the performing actions that don’t access specified
data or resources configured by network administrators.
Network security is the practice of securing computer networks from attack. These network
typically handle sensitive information, such as customer data and financial data. As such it is
important to keep network security strong. If not, hackers can steal this data and cause a host
of other problems.
Network security address three key areas of concern: Confidentiality, Integrity and
Availability. Confidentiality is the assurance that data is only used by authorized individuals
and it is not disclosed to others. Integrity ensures that data is not altered in any way during
transmission or storage and availability ensures that the network is accessible when
authorized owners need it.
One of the most important aspects of protecting your network is to protect criteria data. This
includes customers data, financial data, and employee data. By keeping your network secure,
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you reduce the risk of a data breach, which can severely impact your organization reputation
and bottom line. This is especially important in today’s increasingly connected world where
data is more portable than ever before.
In other to protect data, you need to trust your network, system, and devices are secure. This
is accomplished through a variety of robust security measures, such as encryption, firewalls,
antivirus software, password manager, and employee training.
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Authenticity: the security measure is designed to establish the validity of a
transmission, message, or a means of verifying an individual and individual’s
authorization to receive specific information. Authentication prevents impersonation
and requires users to confirm their identities before being allowed access to systems
and resources. This includes user names, password, emails, biometrics, and others.
Non-Repudiation: These attributes assures the sender of data is provided with proof of
the sender’s, receiving, or access the data. Security principles should be used to prove
identities and to validate the communication process.
Boundaries are used to specify the range of devices and services that are allowed on the
network. Network boundaries are also used to protect the network from unauthorized access
and malicious attacks. Network boundaries are important for organizations because they help
to secure their networks from external threats. In this project, the network security will be just
within the university campus.
1.5. Scope
This project is for a university campus network so, Mikrotik server version 7.0 is going to be
used. The number of users that will be connected to this system are in three different
categories namely: Administration, Lecturers and Students.
1.6. DEFINITIONS
Authentication: this is the process of verifying a user or device before allowing access
to a system or resource.
Authorization: this a process by which a server determines if the client has permission
to use a resource or access a file.
Accounting: Cybersecurity systems and risk management plans that protects accounts
and accountants firms from some of the risk from cyber attacks and data breaches.
Integrity: data is complete, trustworthy and has not been modified or accidentally
altered by an unauthorized user.
Availability: ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.
Confidentiality: preserving authorized restriction on information access and
disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and propriety information.
Authenticity: the property of being genuine and being able to be verified and trusted.
Non-Repudiation: a user cannot deny(repudiate) having performed a transaction.
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CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
In this chapter we see the approach and solutions others have developed concerning this
project. A background study of a secure campus network based on Mikrotik, and Windows
Server would involve an in-depth analysis of the hardware and the software components,
network design, security measures, and best practices in network engineering and
administration.
Potential cost: understanding the cost of purchasing and deploying the equipment required
for the secure campus network, as well as any ongoing maintenance or operational expenses
is also important to consider.
Network security: it is essential to analyze the network security features of each proposed
technology and create a comprehensive frame work to help ensure that the network is secured
against both internal and external threads.
Compatibility issues: ensuring that the hard ware and software being proposed for the
network are compatible with existing equipment and software is also important to consider.
The network management practices and procedures should be studied to ensure that the
network can be easily managed and monitored[1]. Mikrotik Router OS are software that can
be used to make the computer become a reliable network router, covering various features
made for IP networks and wireless networks, suitable for use by ISP and hotspot provider.
For the installation of Mikrotik is not required additional soft wear or other additional
components. Mikrotik is designed to be easy to use and very well used for the purposes of
computer network administration such as designing, and building a small to complex
computer network system though[2]. The campus network of our study is designed in a
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hierarchical manner which is common practice of campus and enterprise network. It provides
a modular topology of building blocks that allow the network to evolve easily.
A hierarchical design avoids the need for fully meshed networks in which all network nodes
are interconnected.
Here are some proposed steps for mitigating the known attacks of a campus network:
It’s easy to see why virtual LANs have become extremely popular on networks of all sizes. In
practical terms multiple VLANs are pretty much the same as having multiple separate
physical networks within a single organization- without the headache of managing multiple
cable plans and switches. Because VLANs segments a network, creating multiple broadcast
domains, they effectively allow traffic from the broadcast domains to remain isolated while
increasing the networks bandwidth, availability and security.
A firewall works to monitor and block or allow network traffic, both incoming and outgoing,
on a private network. While there is a hard ware firewall to help protect the campus network
security, these firewall affects certain out bound traffic and prevents unauthorized inbound
traffic. Net BIOS, SMTP and other miscellaneous ports determined to pose a security risk are
blocked in the outgoing direction. This does not impact the majority of academic work-
related programs used on the campus.
A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network, such as
the internet. It enables a computer, or network-enabled device to send and receive data across
shared or public networks as if it were directly connected to the private network, while
benefitting from the functionality security and management policies of the public network. A
VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of
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dedicated connection, virtual tunneling protocols, or traffic encryption. Major implementation
of VPN includes: OpenVPN and IP sec. Campus VPN provides a full tunnel VPN service that
is a secure(encrypted) connection to the network from off campus. Common uses of the
campus VPN includes: access to file sharing/shared drives and certain application that require
a campus IP address. The campus VPN has a 20-hours session limit[3].
Designing your security system, consider the following questions that your standard probably
doesn’t address:
The method of network asset information collection can be divided into a statistical method
and a detection method. The statistical metho depends mainly on statistic software which is
essentially a manual operation, so it is time consuming and has management cost. Obviously,
the statistical method is not fit for the campus size. The detection technology can obtain the
network equipment and its connection information by deploying the server and analyzing
traffic flow from the host. Therefore, this type of technology is mainly used to obtain network
asset information in the Web Hunt.
The detection method can also be divided into passive detection and active detection
according to whether it is necessary to construct data packets. Active detection identifies the
port, system, service and application by establishing a connection with the target host and
sending constructed special packets. Active detection can be implemented in various ways
such as a TCP three-way handshake and ICMP ping.
These implementations can be divided into the full-link scan, semi-link scan and hidden scan
depending on whether a three-way handshake link needs to be established. Passive detection
identifies special service by collecting and analyzing traffic flow with probe device deployed
in specific network locations. The traffic flow must be enough for the identification of the
specific service.
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The common passive asset detection tools are p0f, PRADS, Satori and so on. The p0f is a
pure passive fingerprint identification tool, which achieve fingerprint recognition by sniffing
and analyzing the data packets. The category of information the p0f recognizes are poor. In
other to cope with the surge of network traffic caused by the growth of network scale, Barnes
et al, proposed to deploy p0f in the Linux kernel space, which greatly speeds up analysis of
network traffic.
PRADS passively listens to network traffic and gathers information on host and services. The
information can map the network, letting the user know that services and host are active.
Satori identifies the network assets and their operating system based on the DHCP messages
options and its order feature.
Fingerprint matching is a method to determine the type of a host or a device. The target of
finger print identification include: port service identification and Web application
identification. Most of the existing web server fingerprint tools focus on the feature value
matching, such as “server” in the header of the responds packet. Lee et al, proposed a method
of determining the type of HTTP server by requesting a URL sub-link that does not exist in
the target system. The content of the web page returned by the Apache server is “not found
object”. The difference could be evident to identify Apache and Microsoft IIS.
The network vulnerability assessment is a type of security service based on network asset
intelligence. Network vulnerability assessment can be divided into intrusion detection and
non-intrusion detection according to whether generating detecting traffic may disturb normal
work.
OpenVAS and Nessus are popular vulnerability assessment tools that identify device type
and its exploitable vulnerabilities by sending specialized packets to the target. However,
artificial traffic may cause potential damage to the target network, such as denial of service.
For that reason, permission from the device owner is necessary before vulnerability
assessment. Moreover, Nessus is not flexible. The specialized plug-ins for different OS are
indispensable, and cost much because minor changes in the service description string (banner
information) may cause tool failure[5].
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2.2. Conceptual Framework
MikroTik RouterOS: This is the heart of MikroTik's solution. It's a powerful operating
system specifically designed for routers and can be installed on MikroTik's RouterBOARD
devices or even a standard PC or a Virtual box. RouterOS offers a wide range of features,
including:
MikroTik RouterBOARDs
These are physical network devices pre-loaded with RouterOS. They come in various
configurations with different processing power, memory capacities, and port options.
Here are some common RouterBOARD types:
o Wired Routers: Focus on wired network connectivity with multiple Ethernet
ports for connecting switches and other network devices.
o Wireless Routers: Combine wired and wireless capabilities, functioning as a
router and Wi-Fi access point.
o Switches: Designed to connect multiple network devices and manage data
flow within the network.
o Industrial Routers: Built for harsh environments and offer features like wide
operating temperature ranges[6].
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the study shall be relevant here as many youths fall into the age bracket of most students in
the universities[7].
The system developed two types of secure VPN connection (remote-access and site-to-site)
with IPCop firewall software, using all four network interfaces to protect a with an internal
(Green) network, an Internet or WAN connection (Red), a DMZ containing more than one
Server (Orange), and a wireless segment (Blue) with an IPSec VPN system. On the Green
interface, the system permits connectivity to all interfaces, as workstations and Servers within
the Green segment are managed service workstations on which users do not have the
necessary level of access to cause damage to the resources to which they have access. The
Port Forwarding feature of firewall policy is invoked on external (RED) interface to access
mail and secure web services to the mail server on port 25 in the DMZ, and also to port 443
(HTTPS) on the mail server in order to allow connections to the business webmail system. At
this part, host-to-Net VPN connection is configured with IPSec feature of the IPCop firewall
in order to grant remote access to staff, lecturers and professors who work remotely and to
provide remote connectivity for support purposes for the university resources and third-party
software and hardware vendors. The university is providing connectivity via an IPSec VPN
for clients in order that they can access services run from Servers internally on the Green
segment and DMZ segment at the BLUE interface. Vendors and visitors are allowed access
to the Green segment through use of WPA in pre-shared key mode configured on the wireless
access point. The university always communicates and transfers data to the office of Ministry
which places in remote via the Internet. The traffic between these two offices travels over an
“open” channel, risking confidentiality (unauthorized snooping of data) and integrity
(unauthorized tampering of data). To overcome these risks, the site-to-site or net-to-net VPN
feature proposed to encrypt traffic over the Internet. The two private networks, main office of
university and the office of ministry are connected using inexpensive Internet bandwidth. For
data security, the tunnel is implemented between IPCOP1 of university and IPCop2 for office
of ministry. All traffic flowing through it is encrypted, to ensure confidentiality and integrity.
A VPN relies on a VPN server and a VPN client to establish a secure connection for the
university. When the connection is established, an encrypted tunnel is created between the
client and the server. The external users or users of remote office request any connection
through the client to the web or mail servers are encrypted and sent to the server. Afterwards,
the server decrypts the requests and forwards them to respective server services or resources.
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Once the requested data is received, it is encrypted by the server, and then sent back to the
client.
When the university uses secure VPN connection in data processing with external users and
staffs of remote office, a VPN hides the original IP address of LAN and encrypts the data
transmitting traffic, it essentially makes sure that nobody can’t be tracked digital footprints of
data processing on the Internet. Online hackers won’t be able to use the real IP address of
LAN and to find out any information of university, and government surveillance agencies and
ISPs won’t get to monitor what do online by snooping on university traffic[8].
The invention of technology changes people’s life. It has altered and reshaped many aspects
of existence living. Technology unquestionably has a significant impact on all aspects of life.
People could easily participate in some activities, and they believe that technology have some
negative impacts for social relationship. Technology use has grown to be a critical component
of learning both inside and outside of the classroom. It benefited from and been enhanced
using technology.
The study of discussed that the majority of educational institutions use an online system to
track students and faculty entry within the school vicinity. For student and teachers to
effectively use technology in monitoring entries and exits, they must cover technology in a
high-quality manner .
In contrast to the previous techniques that are time-consuming and inefficient, student
attendance has recently been recognized as one of the critical components or concerns that
represent the academic accomplishments and performance provided to any university.
The use of RFID technology may be integrated in monitoring students and personnel on the
premises by setting up scanners at several sites. In Central Philippines State University, an
academic institution in Kabankalan City with almost six thousand enrolled students and with
many nearby communities around its premise, security personnel received several reports of
disturbances inside the campus caused by unidentified individuals who seems to try to get in
or invade to harsh most especially those with female students that are being alone.
This is due to the lack of close monitoring in letting unknown and known people in the
campus. Because of this scenario, the researchers came up with an idea to develop a
monitoring system that would solve the problem in terms of security purposes. This project is
entitled “Campus-Based Monitoring using RFID.”
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This project aimed to analyze, design, develop, and implement a system that would secure
the vicinity of the University most especially the people inside such as students, employees,
visitors, and the community including vehicles entering the campus by implementing a
security system with RFID integration. The platform would monitor the incoming and
outgoing of students, and personnel using RFID and generate daily reports for incoming and
outgoing of visitors. It can track anyone who comes in and leaves the campus. An identity
card with RFID will be supplied to each respondent. The security officers in the radio room
can monitor the system since it is connected via a network. The technology is only meant to
be used on the main campus of CPSU.
METHODOLOGY The study described the procedures used to gather, present, and evaluate
the data and information required to answer the study's objectives and questions. The
research tools, data sources, data gathering methods, and analytical methods employed are
explained and justified. The study’s outline of the method used to compile, present, and
assess the data and information necessary to address the study's goals and open-ended
questions. The used research instruments, data sources, data collection techniques, and
analysis techniques are described and justified. The agile model was used by the researchers.
It is an iterative and incremental approach to software development that emphasizes
flexibility, collaboration, and rapid delivery of working software [9].
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CHAPTER THREE
The system design of a secured campus network based on AAA and mikrotik involves the
selection and configuration of several hardware and software components that work together
to provide a reliable and secure network infrastructure for a large number of users and
devices in a campus environment.
The main hardware of the system include; routers and switches, mikrotik routers and servers
running window server-based services such as Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP. These
devices must be carefully selected and configured to support the specific needs of the campus
network, with appropriate IP addresses, routing, VLAN’s and firewall policies being set up as
required.
In addition to the hardware components, the system design must also include the appropriate
software components such as firewalls, VPN, an IPSec. These components work together to
provide robust security measures to protect against unauthorize access and attacks including
access control lists that restricts traffic to specific devices or services, VPN tunnel that
securely access the campus network remotely, and IPSec that encrypts and authenticates
traffic between network devices.
Finally, the system design must include appropriate monitoring and management tools to
ensure that the network is operating effectively, with network monitoring tools such as
SNMP and NetFlow being used to monitor network traffic, logging an alerting being
implemented for network events, and regular vulnerability scans being performed to detect
potential security issues. Regular maintenance task such as updates and backup must be
scheduled to ensure the ongoing health and performance of the campus network.
Overall, the system design of a secured campus network based on AAA, mikrotik and
windows server requires careful planning and execution to ensure that the network is reliable
and secure, with appropriate hardware and software components being selected and
configured to support the specific needs of the campus environment[11].
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In the world, there are quite a number of universities, which implemented wireless
network to replace existing fixed local area network. However, in Cameroon,
designing and implementing local area network by using mikrotik in university is a
new issue. The advantages of wireless network are many such as improving the
quality of delivery of education as students and teachers are able to access teaching
material instantaneously. Enhance the interaction between parents, student and
teachers through IP communication tools. Increase productivity of staff by using IP
communication tools. Cultivate student’s interest in learning process.
Increase student productivity as they can gain access to portal web and proceed with
assignments without the constraint of place and time. Enhance safety in the campus by
having video-based surveillance. Overlaid wireless network on existing Ethernet can be used
in order to solve problem of installing additional ports endlessly.
The scale network depending on receive and distributed information through network, the
structure of network depends on issues (building size, number of buildings, and user
requirement). The issues of this network uses wireless technology. As shown in figure
3.1[12].
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3.2. DESIGN
In the design of a digital campus, both infrastructure and ac hoc topologies will be used.
Types of topologies chosen for the design will depend on the structure of the buildings.
Design of the university campus network is shown below.
The mikrotik router contains three VLANs. One for the administration, one for the lectures
and the last for the student. The router is going to be placed at the central administration.
From the central administration, everybody that has access to the network is going to be able
to access it.
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CHAPTER FOUR
IMPLEMENTATION
Access control:
Encryption:
Encryption is important for protecting sensitive data as it moves across the network. It is
important to implement strong encryption standards and to regularly test these standards to
ensure that data is properly protected. Recommendation; use end-to-end encryption whenever
possible, such as using HTTPS for web traffic or SFTP for file transfers.
Incident respond:
Incident respond is important for quickly detecting and responding to security incidents. It is
important to implement strong incident responds procedures and to regularly test these
procedures to ensure that they are effective. Recommendation; conduct regular tabletop
exercises to simulate security incidents and test the effectiveness of the incident response
procedure.
VLAN segmentation:
VLAN segmentation is important for isolating and securing different parts of the network. It
is important to implement strong VLAN segmentation and to regularly test this segmentation
to ensure that each VLAN is properly isolated. Recommendation; use virtual technologies,
such as virtual LANs(VLANs) or virtual private network(VPNs), to create logical network
segments and isolate traffic between them.
Hotspot authentication:
Hotspot authentication is important for ensuring that only authorized users can access the
network. It is important to implement strong hotspot authentication procedures and to
regularly test these procedures to ensure that only authorized users can access the network.
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Recommendations; implement captive portals and require users to provide valid credentials
before accessing the network.
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/ IP address
Add address=203.0.133.100/24 interface=WAN gateway=203.0.113.1
/ IP firewall NAT
Add chain=srct action=masquerade out-interface=WAN
#enable hotspot
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* Each VLAN is assigned a unique VLAN ID (10, 20, and 30) to logically
separate the different user groups (faculty and administration, students, and
guests).
* This configuration allows the network to segregate traffic and enforce
policies based on the user group, improving security and network
management.
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* These firewall rules help to enhance the security of the network by blocking
traffic from known malicious sources, disabling unnecessary services, and
allowing essential network traffic.
/ IP firewall address-list
Add list=blocked-hosts address 1.2.3.4
Comment= “Blocked host”
/ IP DHCP-server network
Add address=192.168.11.0/24 gateway=192.168.11.1
#administration
Add address=192.168.12.0/24 gateway=192.168.12.1 #lecturer
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Add address=192.168.13.0/24 gateway=192.168.13.1 #student
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CHAPTER FIVE
In conclusion, a secured campus network based on AAA, Mikrotik and Windows server
technology is a crucial aspect of modern organization. It provides protection against cyber
threats, allows for efficient data management and communication, and helps to ensure
regulatory compliance. To create a secured campus network, organizations need to follow a
set of design principles, including implementing multiple layers of security, dividing the
network into smaller segments, limiting access based on least privilege, using strong
authentication and authorization mechanisms, implementing monitoring and logging tools,
and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
Resources constraints. Since this is a small project there were no sophisticated devices and
much capital hence very limited resources making the project difficult to maintain and easy
target for hackers.
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5.2. REFFERENCE
[1] M. Rukunujjaman, “Design and implementation of a secured campus Network based on
Ciscorouter, Mikrotik, and windows server,” Bangladesh, 2023.
[2] S. Islam, “Design and implementation of login-baseed Wi-Fi hotspot network for a
university campu,” Springer Singerpore, 2021.
[3] M. Ali, “Design and implementation of a secured campus network,” 2015.
[4] N. McKeown, OpenFlow : enable innovation in campus networks. 2008.
[5] R. Zheng, “Assessing the security of campus network: the case of seven universities.,”
2021.
[6] Normunds. R, Routers OS. 2024.
[7] H. N. Eke, “The use of social networking sites amoung the undergraduate students of
university of of Nigeria, Nsukka”.
[8] N. Thin, “Design and implemention of a network connection of a university”.
[9] K. Joshua, “Design and implementations of campus monitoring,” May 2023.
[10]P. Wai, “Design and implementation of university campus network based on FTTH”.
[11]A. Yanqin, “Development of a network security system with mikrotik,” 2020.
[12]H. Mohsin, “Design and implementation of large scale networks,” 2017.
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