What is Wi-Fi Frag attack? And How Can You Protect Against Them?
A frag (fragmentation and aggregation) attack collects traffic to unsecured networks in order to clone and impersonate servers,
or it opens the network by injecting plaintext frames that appear like handshake communications. In other words, a Frag attack
tricks a network device into assuming that it is performing a secure action.
What are the Wi-Fi bugs that cause frag attacks?
During the discovery of Wi-Fi vulnerabilities, it was concluded that three of the problems were design flaws in the Wi-Fi protocol
and the rest were programming bugs.
The main drawback of these vulnerabilities is the ability to access a completely secure Wi-Fi network using WPA2 or WPA3
encryption.
A major vulnerability was found in the fragmentation process. This is an essential feature of Wi-Fi networks used to improve performance
degradation due to excessive background noise. Data can be easily reconstructed on receipt by sending it in manageable fragments,
or "chunks".
In some circumstances, if a connected device is vulnerable, attackers can inject malicious data packets across the router's firewall.
This gives the hackers access to the device's IP addresses and destination ports.
Key Risk Factors of Frag Attacks
Are you concerned that you might be the target of a frag attack? The next step is to understand the two key risk factors for these
assaults.
1. Theft of data
A frag attack can be used to steal and intercept data from a Wi-Fi network. Most HTTPS and other types of encryption-enabled websites
and applications are safe from such assaults.
A frag attack can overcome encryption and cause data theft if unencrypted data is delivered over an encrypted Wi-Fi connection.
2. Vulnerable device attacks
Wi-Fi frag assaults can affect most smart homes and IoT devices. Unknown-brand smart devices, such as cheap smart plugs and smart
light bulbs, may lack the necessary long-term support and updates, making them vulnerable to frag attacks.
It makes no difference because all of your devices, big and small, are connected to a secure home network. Frag attacks, on the other
hand, can overcome Wi-Fi network encryption, allowing each device to be targeted directly as if they were connected to the same network.
Do you have to be concerned about a frag attack?
You should be concerned if you have devices connected to your Wi-Fi network, however the known examples of fragging are minor. Further
inquiries on Wi-Fi or Access point, feel free to contact us via our hotline at 6259 5962
or drop us an email at info@achievement.com.sg.
