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Comment by blitmap | Hacker News Reader

Preface: I am not at all an expert on WiFi

In WPA2 you can send deauthentication "frames" to clients to get them to disconnect from the access point. Later I was told these "control frames" can now be encrypted, with an extension/modification to WPA2 supported in the better consumer wireless routers like Linksys?

In response to your Denial of Service point: Does WPA3 make it harder to disconnect clients? (or are you talking about simply overwhelming the airspace with traffic/interference/jamming?)

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There is only so much effort one can put into denial of service attacks in wireless. The fact that this involves radio frequencies means there is always a nuclear option: massive broadcasts of white noise. There is no way for wifi devices to adapt to such an attack. So the fact that some denial attacks can happen using exploits is moot. If the attacker really wants to hold your network down he isn't going to bother with tricky packets. He is going to jam the entire spectrum. Whether you are running WEP or some bleeding edge WPA5.7 implementation won't matter if all anyone can hear is white noise.

Yeah but if you're a sleazy hotel chain that simply wants people to use their crappy expensive wifi instead of personal hotspots then you can't use the "nuclear option" as the white noise will also fuck up your network.

This is the type of attack that is being defended against here, not white-noise bombs.

As dcbadacd described this protection capability (.11w) is mandatory to be WPA3 certified and when operating in WPA3 mode. Transitional mode (WPA2 compatible mode) doesn't mandate it's use because not all WPA2 clients are compatible with it.

The denial of service I'm talking about is as simple as setting up a virtual AP out of your laptop wifi adapter and constantly sending broadcast frames out at max rate. Similar to screaming loudly to interrupt a secret conversation rather than actually attacking the encoded language.

AFAIK WPA3 makes PMF (Protected Management Frames) mandatory.

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