Denial of Service Attacks Against 802.11 DCF

Abstract

This paper investigates the vulnerabilities in the 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) mechanisms. We have conducted a series of Denial of Service (DoS) attack experiments targeting at the 802.11 DCF and evaluated the effectiveness of such attacks on different configurations. The results show that any current or upcoming 802.11 standards would not provide adequate help to mitigate the risk of DoS attacks. Therefore, the 802.11-based wireless LANs should not be used in any environments where the requirement of network availability is essential. We have also analysed some countermeasures against such attacks.