A new counter disassociation mechanism (CDM) for 802.11b/g wireless local area networks

IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks provide the ability to build a cost efficient network infrastructure that is flexible and mobile. This technology tried to provide mechanisms by which to secure the network, however, it failed to do so. The security mechanisms evolved from wired equivalent privacy (WEP) to Wi-Fi protected access (WPA), which introduced more enhancements to both encryption and authentication. Although WPA has improved significantly the security of the wireless LANs, it still has some weaknesses. We are going to explore a new security scheme that attempts to fix a hole in the disassociation mechanism of the WPA protocol. This vulnerability allows an attacker to shutdown the entire network even for those users that are authorized within the network.