Implementation of a programmable Wi-Fi jammer

Abstract

In our society, Wi-Fi devices increase at an exponential rate. Users are increasingly in need of wireless technology. In spite of all this, security in the Wi-Fi network is considered a big challenge that has not yet received all the attention it deserves. Millions of attacks have been invented exploiting the vulnerabilities that exist in Wi-Fi technology. In particular, the denial of service (DoS) attack is considered to be a serious problem because it causes a total disruption in the communication system and potentially an immense economic loss. Such attack can be carried out using an affordable and economical device on the market. A Wi-Fi jammer is a device designed to perform a service DoS attack by sending a signal with high power to a particular channel. In addition, the WLAN medium access control is based on the CSMA / CA mechanism, it is very vulnerable to a DoS attack because the attackers can take advantage of the design of some messages of the mechanism and block the communication. Therefore, this research has its main objective in demonstrating the vulnerability of Wi-Fi network denial of service attacks using a programmable chip, TI SimpleLink CC320. To reach our goal, we analyze different aspects of IEEE 802.11 technology, become familiar with the development environment of the chip, and study the code of the examples to adapt our implementation. The work is completed with evidence of its effectiveness and efficiency. To do this, we use software such as Tera-term, Wireshark, Iperf, TI radio tool as testing tools. It is about finding the maximum damage based on the lowest power consumed. In this search, we have created a series of experiments to study the effect of the distance together the level of transmitted power and the energy consumption according to the variation of transmitted power.