Is it possible to create a denial of service attack using Collision Detection on an Ethernet network?
Talking about CSMA/CD(Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection) in my CISCO net academy, the question came up.
Is it possible to create a denial of service attack by spoofing a collision signal? If so, are there any safeguards that are implemented in networks to stop such an attack from occurring?
The question was more about legacy hubbed networks(forgot to mention that).
But you gave me exactly what I was asking. Thanks.
One Response
Stephen Dugan
03 Sep 2010
Not in modern networks.
The reason for this is simple. First, every port on a switch is a separate collision domain. You would only be DoSing yourself and your switch port. Second, most devices attached to an Ethernet switch run in Full duplex mode. When running full duplex the CSMA/CD functions are turned off.
This attack however (with a slight variation) does have teeth on a wireless network due to the fact that you are back on shared media like an old Ethernet hub. The difference is that 802.11 uses CSMA/CA. The CA in this case is Collision Avoidance.
However… in order to do this you already have to have access to the wireless network. Gaining access to a wireless network just to launch a DoS attack seems a bit silly to me.
Hope this helps,
Stephen Dugan, CCSI