Wireless Vulnerabilities & Exploits
Wireless Vulnerabilities & Exploits
WVE ID: WVE-2005-0048
Type: Vulnerability
Status: Candidate
Classification:
Denial of Service
Design Flaw
Description:
802.11 Access Points are vulnerable to DoS attacks that involve sending Authentication frames to the AP from multiple spoofed station addresses.
Discussion:
802.11 networks utilize frames to manage connection and disconnection of stations from a wireless network. These are appropriately called management frames. One type of management frame, an authentication frame is used to authenticate a station with an AP before the station proceeds to associate with the wireless network.
However, a problem arises in that 802.11 management frames provide no authentication. Hence it is possible for an attacker to spoof a large number of stations and send out authentication frames for each spoofed station. Doing so can cause the AP's association table to fill which can cause the AP to lock-up.
Credits
References
WVE:
WVE-2005-0019
URL:
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.11-1999.pdf
Released: 2000-01-01
Submitter
Andrew
Lockhart
(alockhart@networkchemistry.com)
: Network Chemistry
Submitted: Wed Nov 30 13:17:58 -0800 2005
Candidate Date: Wed Nov 30 13:19:36 -0800 2005
