Title: Detailed DoS attacks in wireless networks and countermeasures

Authors: Lawan A. Mohammed, Biju Issac

Addresses: Information Security Research (iSECURES) Lab, Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak), 93576 Kuching, Malaysia. ' Information Security Research (iSECURES) Lab, Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak), 93576 Kuching, Malaysia

Abstract: IEEE 802.11 wireless networks have fuzzy boundaries, making it easy for an attacker to capture the transmitted packets. Also the attacker can send massive volume of illegitimate traffic and utilise system resources in a way that renders the system inoperable, thus denying access to authorised users. This paper is two fold in its description. Firstly, it describes some of the major vulnerabilities associated with wireless networks. Secondly, it demonstrates different methods of achieving Denial of Service (DoS) attacks in detail, as it applies to wireless networks and discusses and proposes different countermeasures to minimise the attacks.

Keywords: DoS attacks; countermeasures; wireless networks; vulnerabilities; denial of service; access denial.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2007.012417

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2007 Vol.2 No.3, pp.157 - 166

Published online: 12 Feb 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article