A critical vulnerability has been found in Wi-Fi wireless technology that makes it susceptible to cyberattacks. This was announced on Wednesday, May 12, by Belgian digital security researcher Maty Vanhof.
He named the discovered vulnerability Frag Attacks. It allows collecting data on device owners within a Wi-Fi range and launching malicious programs on their gadgets. During his experiments, the researcher recorded that half of the tested home routers were affected by this problem. In addition, he discovered the vulnerability on several IoT devices and smartphones.
Mathie Vanhof notes that most of the Wi-Fi problems have not been addressed since 1997, when the standard was first introduced. All malfunctions have arisen due to errors of programmers and hardware developers.
“It will not be easy for criminals to use Frag Attacks, but a capable hacker will be able to carry out a successful attack on a specific device,” the expert noted.
The WiFi Alliance, which oversees the standard, said they are already working on a solution to this problem. The company's specialists also said that they do not yet have evidence that the vulnerabilities are being used maliciously against Wi-Fi users.
