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Jamming Wi-Fi With a $15 Dongle

Posted by timothy on from the no-soup-or-data-for-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this report about just how easy it is to disrupt if not entirely kill modern consumer-grade networks -- not just Wi-Fi, but Bluetooth and Zigbee networks, too. Crucial to determining the likelihood of any given kind of attack, though, is how much it would cost the attacker to attempt. The bad news for network owners and users is that it doesn't cost much at all: "According to Mathy Vanhoef, a PhD student at KU Leuven (Belgium), it can easily be done by using a Wi-Fi $15 dongle bought off Amazon, a Raspberry Pi board, and an amplifier that will broaden the range of the attack to some 120 meters."

9 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. With a $15 dongle? by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...it can easily be done by using a Wi-Fi $15 dongle bought off Amazon, a Raspberry Pi board, and an amplifier that will broaden the range of the attack to some 120 meters.

    In other news, I can build myself a car with a $3 roll of duct tape bought off Amazon, as long as I happen to have all the other pieces sitting in my garage. Astounding!

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    1. Re:With a $15 dongle? by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You'd have a bubble where people were fiddling with their phones because it just crapped out on them.

    2. Re:With a $15 dongle? by bws111 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry. A guy in Florida was fined $48000 by the FCC for operating a cell phone jammer in his car to prevent others near him from using their phones.

  2. PhD by darkain · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait, it took a PhD student to figure out that broadcasting malicious signals disrupts signals on the similar wavelengths? And OMGs it effects BlueTooth, too!? Totally didn't know that two personal usage wireless communication specs would both be using unlicensed spectrum, WHO WOULDA THOUGHT!?

    I can do it for quite a bit less. Just put a small piece of plastic into the door switch of a microwave so it thinks it is closed, but leave it open. Now turn it on. You can cook yourself while killing Wifi all throughout the house! [DISCLAIMER, DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS]

    1. Re:PhD by Gliscameria · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's how you know it's working.

      --
      X
  3. As Kravindish would say: by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    "This is illegal, you know."

    Marriott got fined over half a million dollars for jamming guests' Wi-Fi.

  4. Wifi. by ledow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are you using unlicensed Wifi spectrum for anything mission critical, such that jamming would be anything more than a slight inconvenience?

    More fool you.

  5. In other news... by SecurityGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...did you know that you can render a car inoperable with a device as simple and cheap as a nail? That you can destroy many electronics simply by getting them wet? That you can harm a person simply by swinging a fist into them? Etc, etc, etc.

    Yes, we know this. For many things, it's not possible to make them unbreakable, therefore we enact societal consequences for breaking them like jail, fines, etc. It's been that was for, well, all of recorded history.

  6. Re:FCC will go ballistic over this by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    First off .. it's Belgium, so not so much with the FCC.

    But, really, if you assume a malicious actor, why the hell would they care?

    If it's cheap and easy to do it, people probably will. It's not like the FCC (or any other agency) has the ability to prevent the attacks just by saying you're not allowed to do it.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.