Methods and apparatus for improving the resilience of wireless
packet-switched networks to Layer-2 attacks is provided via a lightweight
mechanism for detecting spoofed frames. The mechanism enables a receiving
node to detect spoofed frames from information contained in cookies sent
with frames. A first cookie, containing initial information, is sent to
the receiving station from the transmitting node along with the first
frame of a frame set. For each received frame, spoofing detection
includes applying a function to information received via a corresponding
cookie received with the subject frame, the result of which function is
compared with information received via a previous cookie. The validity of
the subject frame is asserted if the result of applying the function to
information received in the corresponding subject cookie correlates with
previous or initial information received in a previous or the first
cookie, respectively. An exemplary implementation includes using a
one-way hashing function. Advantages are derived from a low computational
overhead in effecting spoofed frame detection and from an ability of the
proposed solution to co-exist with other standardized security
mechanisms.