According to the web search results, hackers are hacking WPA3 networks by exploiting several design flaws in the protocol that allow them to recover the Wi-Fi password or launch denial-of-service attacks. Some of the methods they use are:
- Downgrade attacks: Hackers can force a device to use the less secure WPA2 protocol instead of WPA3 by exploiting the transitional mode that is supposed to support both protocols. This way, they can capture the four-way handshake and crack the password offline12.
- Side-channel attacks: Hackers can exploit timing or cache-based leaks in the Dragonfly handshake, which is supposed to be resistant to offline dictionary attacks. By observing the execution time or memory access patterns of the handshake, hackers can obtain information about the password and perform a password partitioning attack, which reduces the search space for guessing the password134.
- Denial-of-service attacks: Hackers can overload an access point by initiating a large number of handshakes with it, bypassing the anti-clogging mechanism that is supposed to prevent such attacks. This can cause the access point to crash or become unresponsive12.
These attacks are serious threats to the security and privacy of Wi-Fi users, and they show that WPA3 is not as robust as it was expected to be. The researchers who discovered these flaws have reported them to the Wi-Fi Alliance, which has issued some patches and guidelines to mitigate them. However, some of the flaws may persist for years, especially in low-cost devices that are not regularly updated1.