Ali Abedi from Stanford University in California and his colleagues discovered a phenomenon, which was called “polite Wi-Fi.” The essence of the phenomenon is that the devices exchange data with other wireless gadgets, even if they do not belong to the same network. Moreover, for this you do not need to know the password, have special permits, and answers with requests may not contain any important information. However, the Abedi team still found a way of abuse of such a connection.
Recall, earlier, a group of Belgian scientists from the University of Waterloo, led by Dr. Ali Abedi, created a copter capable of determining the location of devices connected to Wi-Fi with an accuracy of a meter. For this, researchers needed to create a device called Wi-Peep, collected from the components widely accessible for sale worth only $ 20.
Now the researchers have found that they can continuously kick Wi-Fi devices operating from the battery, thereby not allowing them to go into sleep mode, which is why the battery charge begins to be exhausted much faster. This time to prevent their transition to sleep mode, quickly depleting their energy. To crank up such an attack, just buy a device for $ 10, which will constantly send packages with “garbage” data.
The team tested 5,000 different gadgets from 186 manufacturers and found that they are all vulnerable to attacks of this type: If the device receives a fake data package, it always meets the ACK signal. The scheme was triggered at a distance of up to 200 meters.
According to experts, at first glance, the discharge of batteries seems harmless at first glance, but in combination with other vulnerabilities, it can lead to dangerous attacks. For example, robbers can defuse the battery of surveillance cameras with Wi-Fi support, and over time, such attacks will become more sophisticated, and the number of cases of use will increase.