KARMA Attack.

A rogue access point attack in which a malicious AP answers every probe request, masquerading as any preferred network a client is looking for. It belongs to the Attacks & Threats category of cybersecurity.

A rogue access point attack in which a malicious AP answers every probe request, masquerading as any preferred network a client is looking for.

KARMA was presented in 2004-2005 by Dino Dai Zovi and Shane Macaulay. Wi-Fi clients periodically broadcast probe requests listing the SSIDs of networks they have joined before. A KARMA-capable AP answers every probe with a matching probe response, so any phone or laptop with a saved 'coffeeshop' or 'Starbucks Wi-Fi' will silently associate and route traffic through the attacker. Once associated the attacker can sniff traffic, run TLS-stripping or evil-portal pages, and harvest credentials. Modern variants include MANA (Sensepost) and tools like hostapd-mana and wifiphisher. Defences include disabling auto-join for open networks, using HTTPS-only mode, and enabling 802.11w MFP plus enterprise authentication.

Defences for KARMA Attack typically combine technical controls and operational practices, as detailed in the full definition above.

Common alternative names include: KARMA Wi-Fi attack, Probe-response rogue AP.