Warkitting: The Drive-by Subversion of Wireless Home Routers

In this paper we introduce the notion of warkitting as the drive-by subversion of wireless home routers through unauthorized access by mobile WiFi clients. We describe how such attacks can be performed, evaluate the vulnerability of currently deployed wireless routers based on experimental data, and examine the impact of these attacks on Internet fraud. Our analysis shows that it is possible in practice to carry out warkitting attacks with low cost equipment widely available today and that the volume of credential theft possible through warkitting exceeds current estimates of credential theft due to phishing. We discuss how to detect a warkitting attack in progress and show how to analyze warkitted routers for evidence linking it to the attackers.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: JDFP
• Authors: Alex Tsow, Markus Jakobsson, Liu Yang, Susanne Wetzel
• Keywords: Credential Theft, JDFP 2006, Mobile Wifi Clients, Wireless Home Routers