Pretty bad. The attack works against: Small Wi-Fi networks in homes and offices Large enterprise networks Attackers on the same SSID, a separate SSID, or even a separate network segment All major router brands tested Once an attacker has MitM position, they can: Steal cookies, passwords, and payment details from unencrypted connections (Google estimates 6-20% of page loads still use HTTP) Poison DNS caches even when HTTPS is in place Intercept company intranet traffic, which is often sent in plaintext See external IP addresses of websites being visited and correlate them with specific URLs Exploit unpatched vulnerabilities from the MitM position

AirSnitch Breaks Wi-Fi Encryption Worldwide — Your Router's Security Is an Illusion

By SaveDelete February 27, 2026 Updated: February 27, 2026

Security researchers have just published details on AirSnitch, a series of attacks that bypass Wi-Fi client isolation across virtually every major router brand — including Netgear, D-Link, Ubiquiti, Cisco, and routers running DD-WRT and OpenWrt. If you thought your encrypted Wi-Fi network was keeping you safe, you might want to sit down for this one.

What Is AirSnitch?

Presented at the 2026 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, AirSnitch exploits previously overlooked weaknesses at the lowest levels of the networking stack — Layers 1 and 2, the physical and data link layers. Unlike previous Wi-Fi attacks (WEP, WPA KRACK) that broke the underlying encryption itself, AirSnitch bypasses encryption entirely by exploiting how client identity is handled across network layers.

The core issue is a "cross-layer identity desynchronization" — the failure to properly bind and synchronize a client's identity across different network layers, SSIDs, and network segments. This means an attacker can perform a full bidirectional machine-in-the-middle (MitM) attack, viewing and modifying data before it reaches the intended recipient.

How Bad Is It?

Pretty bad. The attack works against:

Small Wi-Fi networks in homes and offices
Large enterprise networks
Attackers on the same SSID, a separate SSID, or even a separate network segment
All major router brands tested

Once an attacker has MitM position, they can:

Steal cookies, passwords, and payment details from unencrypted connections (Google estimates 6-20% of page loads still use HTTP)
Poison DNS caches even when HTTPS is in place
Intercept company intranet traffic, which is often sent in plaintext
See external IP addresses of websites being visited and correlate them with specific URLs
Exploit unpatched vulnerabilities from the MitM position

The Skeptic's Take

Here's what should concern everyone: this isn't about breaking one specific protocol or exploiting one vendor's implementation bug. AirSnitch targets fundamental architectural assumptions in how Wi-Fi networking works. The "client isolation" feature that every router manufacturer promises? It's built on a foundation that doesn't actually guarantee isolation.

Lead researcher Xin'an Zhou put it bluntly: "AirSnitch breaks worldwide Wi-Fi encryption, and it might have the potential to enable advanced cyberattacks." Co-author Mathy Vanhoef later clarified that it's more of an encryption "bypass" than a break — "we don't break Wi-Fi authentication or encryption. We bypass it." The distinction is technically important but practically cold comfort.

The fact that Wi-Fi has had 48 billion enabled devices shipped since the late 1990s and serves roughly 6 billion users makes this a genuinely global security concern. That guest network you set up for visitors? That enterprise network segmentation your IT team configured? They may not provide the isolation you assumed.

What Can You Do?

For now, the options are limited. Using a VPN adds an additional encryption layer that AirSnitch can't bypass. Ensuring all your web traffic uses HTTPS (and being cautious about DNS) helps mitigate the worst scenarios. But fundamentally, this requires router firmware updates and potentially architectural changes to how Wi-Fi handles client identity — and that's going to take time.

The Bottom Line

AirSnitch is a reminder that the infrastructure we depend on most is often the least scrutinized. We've spent decades assuming that Wi-Fi encryption means Wi-Fi security, and researchers just proved that assumption wrong at the most fundamental level. The question now is how quickly the industry responds — and whether anyone is already exploiting this in the wild.