5 Wireless Local Area Network Attacks

Wireless LAN (Local Area Network) Attacks

1. Denial of Service attacks
2. Man in the middle attacks
3. Discovery and Probing tools
4. MAC identity spoof attacks
5. Static WEP cracking programs

1. Denial of Service attacks

The common problem is RF interference. Network availability and signal quality decrease when the interference increase. By this attacker Jam the RF frequency and by which denial of service attack occurs. An attacker can send the useless packets to server and by which the denial of service occurs due to the network overhead.

2. Man in the middle attacks

Attacker can modify the traffic passing between two parties. Man in the middle attack occurs if the system not able to differentiate communication with the original recipient. Attacker can create a fake Wi-Fi network and once the user connected to that network the attacker can able to see the user activities the user is doing online.

3. Discovery and Probing tools

Discovery and Probing tools help the attacker to find the wireless networks that have the weak security. There are many tools that helps the attacker to find the low security access points.

4. MAC identity spoof attacks

Mac Addresses are broadcast open in the air. An Attacker can capture the mac address of the authorized WLAN user, AP, switches and routers component. After capturing the mac address there are lot of programs that can spoof these mac addresses and wlan easily compromise.

5. Static WEP cracking programs

Static keys being used in the WEP and these keys easily cracked. WPA and WPA2 introduced as the solution for the WEP because of its security weaknesses. But many are using the WEP and WEP have many vulnerabilities because of its using static keys.