Abstract
Wireless networks are now ubiquitous as part of the global digital infrastructure, providing communications in residential, commercial and public contexts. The advent of the Wi-Fi Protected Access III (WPA3) protocol has represented a major advance in wireless network security through improved authentication and better cryptographic protections. Nevertheless, despite the advances provided by WPA3, there continue to be vulnerabilities in wireless network availability that attackers can leverage. Specifically, de-authentication attacks exploit vulnerabilities in IEEE 802.11 management frames that do not compromise the integrity of encryption, but can disrupt client access to the network. This study aims at assessing the resistance of WPA3 wireless networks against de-authentication attacks, as well as analyzing the effects of these attacks on the availability of the network. The study employed an experimental approach based on a controlled wireless testbed where both WPA2 and WPA3 network configurations were created and tested with simulated de-authentication attacks. The results demonstrated that while WPA3 provides significant improvements in authentication and encryption, it is possible to negatively impact its availability through de-authentication attacks under specific circumstances. The study identifies potential avenues to improve the protection of wireless networks against availability attacks, including enhancing the protection of IEEE 802.11 management frames and developing more sophisticated intrusion detection systems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the behavior of modern wireless networks under deauthentication attacks and to assess the impact of these attacks on wireless network availability in a network infrastructure that utilizes modern security standards. The experiments demonstrate that deauthentication attacks can seriously impact wireless network stability, disrupting communications between wireless devices and access points.