Wi-Fi networks catch autoimmune disease, lock out legitimate users

Wi-Fi networks can be persuaded to lock out their legitimate users by an "autoimmune disorder" attack, researchers at the Defcon-16 security conference will show this week.

Researchers from Airtight Networks will unveil how they compromised eight different wireless networks by persuading their security systems to lock out legitimate users.

This is similar to autoimmune disease in humans, which occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. The presentation is about discovery of autoimmunity disorder, which can be triggered by sending specially crafted packets to some networks that use open source and commercial 802.11 application program (AP) systems.