From smartwatches, laptops to your smartphones, all are at risk of frag attacks wi-fi vulnerabilities. Hackers can easily take advantage of this and steal your information if your device is connected to wi-fi.
A NY-based hacker Mathy Vanhoef has disclosed this new wi-fi vulnerability recently and said it was already there since 1997 when the first version was developed.
Vanhoef experimented on 75+ wi-fi products to demonstrate what is frag attack is and how does it work. Here are the results of his experiment and what ways researchers found to protect your home network and devices.
What Are FragAttacks- The New Wi-Fi Vulnerabilities
via:arstechnica
FragAttack refers to fragmentation and aggregation attacks. It is a group of all the weak spots of wi-fi devices and networks that allow giving easy access to hackers to do the following malicious activities:
• They can easily drive the traffic to any unsecured website or network
• Send handshake messages to devices in the network to begin a secure communication and data transfer
• Re-direct users to a malicious DNS serve
• Steal all personal information such as credit card numbers, passwords, usernames, and more
• Execute any program from their device without the user’s knowledge.
• Fragattack vulnerability also allows them to see the device’s IP address and destination ports.
Also Read: Beware iPhone Users! The New Wi-Fi Bug Is Permanent, Here’s Its Temporary Solution
Why Is FragAttack Very Dangerous?
via:toolbox
The reason, why researchers call it extremely dangerous, is its ability to bypass WPA 2 and 3. These are the most popular home network security protection methods that offer secure wireless networks through encryption.
Both Fragattack and KRACK vulnerabilities discovered by Mathy can breach the security letting any suspicious user enter the network.
Experts found several design flaws such as CVE -2020-24588, 87, 86, and implementation flaws behind this exposure. Luckily, there are ways to protect devices from the fragattack vulnerability.
3 Steps To Protect Wi-Fi Network From FragAttacks
via:lifehacker
It is unlikely to escape from this new wi-fi vulnerability since every wi-fi version is exposed to it. However, one can adopt few prevention measures to protect their device. Here are the ways:
• Keep your device updated
• Always check the extension of a website before accessing it. Do not open websites without HTTPS
• Manually set a DNS address for your windows, Mac, Android, and iOS device to prevent routing to a malicious server
Mathy also figured out that frag attack vulnerability is advantageous for hackers only if they are close to the network or have a user’s wi-fi password. But following these security measures are important for everyone as this is only one such issue and the list of loopholes is endless.