iPhone and Network Disruptions ...

Tue Jul 24 18:47:10 UTC 2007

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Prof. Robert Mathews (OSIA) wrote:
>
> Fellow Nanogers:
>
> Reports have floated across my desk in the past week, which have
> suggested that iPhones owned by faculty, staff and students have
> been flooding university campus Wi-Fi networks in parts of the
> country.  For example, see: *"Duke Wi-Fi Crippled by Apple iPhones"
>  *at
> http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=10200AG9NMHU
> Since that story first aired, and by applying a patch that was
> subsequently provided by Cisco, Duke has now come to see the
> elimination of the problem,  see: "*Duke Resolves iPhone, Wi-Fi
> Outage Problems"* at
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2161065,00.asp
>
> There are certain aspects of this story in which I have the most
> interest, and the following questions (if I may be permitted to
> list them) detail my concern - adequately.  I wish to ask you:  1)
> is the iPhone an extra-ordinary device when comparing it with
> devices of a comparable nature, which also request ties to a Wi-Fi
> network, (there are many that use Wi-Fi enabled Smart-phones and
> PDAs on campuses -- so, why do 'they' not pose a similar problem)
> 2) is this problem a result of poor planning and services
> implementation at certain campuses, 3) is this story - a product of
> great exaggerations?  4) if there are technical issues indeed that
> permit iPhones in particular to DoS Wi-Fi nets, what can these
> storms be attributed to, and what can/should be done about it?
>

Hi Robert,

While I am not at liberty to discuss specifics of customer cases, I
think that you will find some of the answers to your questions in a
Cisco Security Advisory which was released today:

      http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20070724-arp.shtml

- -Mike-

> If you are in a position to respond, I would like to hear from you,
>  either publicly or privately.  If there is enough group interest
> in the matter, I would be most happy to summarize.
>
> All the best, Robert. --

- --

Mike Caudill  <mcaudill at cisco.com>  
PSIRT Incident Manager             
DSS PGP: 0xEBBD5271                  
+1.919.392.2855 / +1.919.522.4931 (cell)
http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt     

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