Wi-Fi Exploitation and Router Attacks

This lesson details practical cyber weapon tactics focused on local and wireless network exploitation. It begins by explaining how attackers use malicious captive portals—fake Wi-Fi networks mimicking legitimate ones like a McDonald's hotspot—to force users to connect by generating a stronger signal. It breaks down the mechanics of DHCP starvation, detailing how attackers flood a router with fabricated MAC addresses to reserve all available IP leases (typically lasting 24 hours) and prevent real users from accessing the network. The lesson also demonstrates Denial of Service (DoS) stress testing against standard hardware, contrasting brute-force thread generation with stealthier resource exhaustion methods like the Slow Loris attack, which slowly siphons router RAM. Finally, it explores the social engineering implications of mobile devices constantly probing for known networks, which allows attackers to seamlessly mimic a user's trusted SSIDs.