WharpDOS – I Built an ARP-Based DoS Tool in Python to Learn Network Attacks (Ethically)

Ron Vincent Cada — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:57:08 +0000

As a student specializing in Web and Mobile Application Development, I’ve always been curious about how systems behave beyond the frontend and backend layers — especially when it comes to network security.

So, I gave myself a challenge:

Build a working denial-of-service (DoS) tool that manipulates the network layer — not through floods or DDoS — but by exploiting trust in local communication.

The result? WharpDOS — a Python-based ARP spoofing & network disconnection tool, designed for ethical testing and educational purposes.

What is ARP Spoofing?

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is what devices use to map IP addresses to MAC addresses in local networks.
It’s fast, but it’s also vulnerable — any device can send a forged ARP reply, poisoning the ARP cache of others.

This is what ARP spoofing does:

Tells the victim, “Hey, I’m the router.”

Tells the router, “Hey, I’m the victim.”

Then intercepts or disrupts traffic.

In WharpDOS, I went a step further:

Instead of forwarding traffic like a man-in-the-middle tool, I drop it — creating a simple, silent, non-congestive denial of service.

⚙️ Features

✅ ARP Network Scanning (via scapy)
✅ Interactive Whitelisting (prompt trusted IPs)
✅ ARP Spoofing Engine (without packet forwarding)
✅ Real-Time Monitoring (detect new devices as they connect)
✅ Threaded CLI UI using rich and prompt_toolkit
✅ ARP Table Restoration on Exit (clean shutdown)

Developed and tested on Arch Linux.
Requires sudo/root access to send raw packets.

Code: https://github.com/lucifron28/wharpdos

Feel free to clone, test, and modify it — in a safe, legal environment.

Disclaimer
WharpDOS is intended strictly for:
Educational cybersecurity practice
ethical hacking simulations
Controlled lab environments

❌ Do not use this tool on networks you do not own or have permission to test.
❌ Unauthorized deployment can result in disciplinary or legal consequences.

What I Learned

How ARP works under the hood, and how fragile it can
How to design a CLI tool that interacts live with the network
The importance of graceful exits in tools that manipulate protocol state
How ethical hacking tools can be powerful learning projects What’s Next?

I’d love to:
Explore packet forwarding (to simulate MitM instead of DoS)
Add logging and interface selection menus
Try converting the logic to a GUI Qt version for more visualization

About Me

Hi! I’m Ron Vincent Cada, an IT student focused on fullstack development and slowly diving into cybersecurity.
I love building practical tools that help me (and hopefully others) learn how systems really work.

Let’s connect here or on GitHub:
🔗 https://github.com/lucifron28

DEV Community: Ron Vincent Cada

WharpDOS – I Built an ARP-Based DoS Tool in Python to Learn Network Attacks (Ethically)