关键词: 无线安全, RTS/CTS机制, 802.11协议, 拒绝服务攻击, 无线局域网

Abstract: RTS/CTS mechanism in 802.11 protocol can solve the hidden nodes problem in wireless networks. The vulnerabilities in RTS/CTS mechanism were analyzed. Due to the lack of authentication in RTS/CTS handshakes, attackers can launch denial of service attacks by continuously sending spurious RTS/CTS frames with large enough NAV values. Based on theoretical analysis, experiment was implemented in practical wireless networks using aircrack-ng developing toolkit. The experimental results show that it is feasible to launch denial of service attacks against RTS/CTS mechanism. This vulnerability can be utilized by attacker at any time and should be paid more attention.

Key words: wireless security, RTS/CTS mechanism, 802.11 protocols, denial of service attack, wireless local area networks