How do you prevent CAPEC-613?

Do not enable the feature of "Hidden SSIDs" (also known as "Network Cloaking") – this option disables the usual broadcasting of the SSID by the access point, but forces the mobile handset to send requests on all supported radio channels which contains the SSID. The result is that tracking of the mobile device becomes easier since it is transmitting the SSID more frequently.

What weaknesses does CAPEC-613 target?

CAPEC-613 exploits 2 CWE weaknesses, including CWE-201 (Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data), CWE-300 (Channel Accessible by Non-Endpoint).

How severe is CAPEC-613?

MITRE rates CAPEC-613 as Low severity.

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Detailed attack pattern

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CAPEC-613: WiFi SSID Tracking

In this attack scenario, the attacker passively listens for WiFi management frame messages containing the Service Set Identifier (SSID) for the WiFi network. These messages are frequently transmitted by WiFi access points (e.g., the retransmission device) as well as by clients that are accessing the network (e.g., the handset/mobile device). Once the attacker is able to associate an SSID with a particular user or set of users (for example, when attending a public event), the attacker can then scan for this SSID to track that user in the future.

Last updated June 1, 2026

Low

Typical severity

Per MITRE

Not rated

Likelihood of attack

Per MITRE

2

Related weaknesses

CWEs this targets

Detailed

Abstraction

MITRE classification

Overview

CAPEC-613 (WiFi SSID Tracking) is a detailed-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.

What the attacker needs

Prerequisites

None

Skills required

Low skill: Open source and commercial software tools are available and open databases of known WiFi SSID addresses are available online.

How to mitigate it

Defenses that reduce the risk of CAPEC-613.

Do not enable the feature of "Hidden SSIDs" (also known as "Network Cloaking") – this option disables the usual broadcasting of the SSID by the access point, but forces the mobile handset to send requests on all supported radio channels which contains the SSID. The result is that tracking of the mobile device becomes easier since it is transmitting the SSID more frequently.
Frequently change the SSID to new and unrelated values

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about CAPEC-613.

What is CAPEC-613?: In this attack scenario, the attacker passively listens for WiFi management frame messages containing the Service Set Identifier (SSID) for the WiFi network. These messages are frequently transmitted by WiFi access points (e.g., the retransmission device) as well as by clients that are accessing the network (e.g., the handset/mobile device). Once the attacker is able to associate an SSID with a particular user or set of users (for example, when attending a public event), the attacker can then scan for this SSID to track that user in the future.
How do you prevent CAPEC-613?: Do not enable the feature of "Hidden SSIDs" (also known as "Network Cloaking") – this option disables the usual broadcasting of the SSID by the access point, but forces the mobile handset to send requests on all supported radio channels which contains the SSID. The result is that tracking of the mobile device becomes easier since it is transmitting the SSID more frequently.
What weaknesses does CAPEC-613 target?: CAPEC-613 exploits 2 CWE weaknesses, including CWE-201 (Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data), CWE-300 (Channel Accessible by Non-Endpoint).
How severe is CAPEC-613?: MITRE rates CAPEC-613 as Low severity.

References

Attack-pattern data is sourced from the MITRE CAPEC catalog (v3.9). Weakness associations link to the corresponding CWE entries on RadicalNotion.AI.

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