Implementation of An Intelligent Attack on TCP Traffic in WLANs

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Title: "Implementation of An Intelligent Attack on TCP Traffic in WLANs"

by

Mr. ZHANG, Yaofeng

Abstract:

WiFi has become one of the most widely used technologies
in recent years. However, the shared nature of
wireless medium poses several security risks and makes it
fragile to malicious attack. This project investigated the
implementation process of an intelligent wireless attack on TCP
traffic in WLANs.  The selective jamming attack targets on
downlink TCP flow of a hidden node. By overhearing packets
in LAN, jammer tries to attack transmission of TCP-ACK frames
from the hidden node to AP so that either a retransmission
timeout (RTO) takes place, or round-trip time (RTT) increases,
both reduce the rate of transmission at target side, and hence
increase the throughput of the jammer. The attack requires the
jammer to finish a series of well-coordinated actions in a short
period of time. To achieve the goal, adaptaions and tradeoffs need
be made to conform to actual system. This project implemented the
attack model by transforming the original slot-based algorithm to a
packet-based algorithm and by making use of libpcap, high resolution
timers and socket programming. Primitive results are obtained, which
provide insights to future development.

Date            :       19 May 2014 (Mon)

Time            :       2:00pm to 3:00pm

Venue           :       5503 (lift 25)

Advisor         :       Dr. Brahim BENSAOU

2nd Reader      :       Dr. Jogesh Muppala