Wireless and Mobile Device Security, 2nd Edition

Denial of Service Attacks

Wireless networks are particularly vulnerable to DoS attacks because they operate on a half-duplex collision-detection medium. Only one radio client station can talk at a time, including the access point. Devices listen for traffic before transmitting, and if there is something else transmitting, they will wait. Therefore, if a faulty transmitter is constantly transmitting, no other client station will be able to communicate.

If a DoS is unintended, a packet analyzer such as Wireshark is a great tool for quickly identifying the culprit and resolving the problem. Identifying the failing transmitter is especially easy if it resides on your own network. If the failing transmitter is on a neighboring network, it might be ...