WI-FI Wireless uses radio waves for communication between wireless devices that are connected to the WI-FI network. As the wireless devices uses the open space for communication, it’s an open target for attacks. Attackers use WI-FI wireless attack methodologies before performing the actual attack. The following are the attacks performed on WI-FI wireless networks:
DoS Attack – Attackers make the wireless network un-available for the users to connect and communicate to each other on the WI-FI Wireless network. The following are the types of WI-FI Wireless DoS attacks:
Disassociation Attack – The attacker sends forged dis-association frame to the access point and di-connects a wireless client from the access point.
Deauthentication Attack – The attacker sends forged de-authentication frame to the access point which removes the client completely out of the Wi-FI network and puts it in de-authenticated state. The client should again authenticate to connect.
Jamming – Attacker sends out jamming signal that causes Wi-Fi wireless pause due to it’s inherit property of CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) mechanism being used in Wireless Network. CSMA/CA uses Physical Carrier Sense that checks whether the frequency channel is free to transmit. Physical Carrier Sense leverages clear channel assessment (CCA) process that detects the channel status using Signal Noise Ratio (SNR) and Energy Detect (ED). In the Jamming attack, the attacker jams the Wi-FI network by sending RF noise signal and makes the 802.11 wireless to become silent and hence leading to Denial of Service (DoS) of the network.
MAC Spoofing – The attacker spoofs the MAC address of a genuine access point and places a rogue access point. The victim client connects to this rogue access point and the attacker has access to all data flowing through this access point
Eavesdropping – Attacker sniffs the wireless radio waves and crack the encryption to get the plain text data sent between the sender and Access Point.
Evil Twin – Attacker places a rogue AP that broadcasts a genuine existing SSID. The client connects to this fake SSID and attacker gets access to the data packets.