Honeypot and Mis-Association attacks
Normally, when a wireless client such as a laptop is turned on, it will probe for the networks it has previously connected to. These networks are stored in a list called the Preferred Network List (PNL) on Windows-based systems. Also, along with this list, it will display any networks available in its range.
A hacker may do either of two things:
Silently monitor the probe and bring up a fake access point with the same ESSID the client is searching for. This will cause the client to connect to the hacker machine, thinking it is the legitimate network.
He may create fake access points with the same ESSID as neighboring ones to confuse the user to connect to him. Such attacks are very easy to conduct in coffee shops and airports where a user might be looking to connect to a Wi-Fi connection.
These attacks are called Honeypot attacks , which happen due to Mis-Association to the hacker's access point thinking it is the legitimate one.
In the next exercise, we will...