Wi-Fi Attack on Delta Flight After DEF CON

A Man in the Middle attack on an airline flight? From Bleeping Computer: Delta probes Wi-Fi deauth attack on flight carrying DEF CON attendees

Def Con just finished in Las Vegas. Def Con ran from 5 August to 8 August. Black Hat, also in Las Vegas, was from the 1st to the 6th. In theory, Def Con is a hacker conference, and Black Hat is Security Consulting conference. I'm not sure how segregated the two conferences are these days.

There are usually warnings about using your personal cellphone anywhere near either conference, or WiFi anywhere in the area, without a lot of extra precautions.

It seems someone was doing a deauthentication attack on the inflight WiFi, on Delta Flight 591 from Las Vegas to Atlanta.

Which was probably not a smart thing to do.

In a deauthentication attack, clients connected to a Wi-Fi network receive forged packets pretending to be from the legitimate access point (AP), telling them to disconnect.

You then provide your own access point, hoping people will connect, which puts you in the position of doing a Man in the Middle attack. This is why you shouldn't use a public WiFi unless you are also using a VPN.

Mary Perrault, a member of online frequent flyer groups with no formal affiliation to Delta Air Lines, states that the fake Wi-Fi network showed a phishing page that collected “personal credentials and Google login data.”

After the aircraft docked at the gate, federal authorities and airport police boarded the aircraft to question the suspects and seize their portable Wi-Fi hardware, Perrault said.

They don't say what that equipment is, but a Hak5 Pineapple is between $250 and $1200, depending on the model. That isn't your only choice of course. They may have also confiscated any computers, and maybe even phones. So not too smart. Unless the feds swept up the wrong people.