December 26th, 2007
Hidden Wireless Networks
Access points (APs) advertise their capabilities several times per second by broadcasting beacon frames that carry the Service Set Identifier (SSID) of the wireless network. Commercial grade access points can be configured to advertise multiple SSIDs/networks. SOHO class access points typically only allow a single SSID to be configured. A hidden wireless network [...]
Filed under: How To Guides, WLAN Security | No Comments
December 8th, 2007
History of tsunami SSID
“tsunami” is the default SSID for Cisco Aironet access points prior to IOS Release 12.3(4)JA. In addition to shipping with tsunami as the default SSID all versions earlier than 12.3(4)JA shipped with the 802.11 radio enabled and in some cases a default IP address (10.0.0.1) for the ethernet interface if DHCP isn’t [...]
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July 16th, 2007
Free Public WiFi
The “Free Public WiFi” SSID seems to be everywhere – at airports, on planes, and in hotels. Based on what the SSID spells, it seems to be the perfect solution for those seeking to connect to the Internet because it is “Free”…cost nothing…”Public”…you break no laws connecting to it…”WiFi” …a few clicks and you’ll [...]
Filed under: WLAN Security | 28 Comments
May 16th, 2007
A colleague alerted me to the 2007 predictions list below.
Since late 2003, inCode has been issuing an annual, widely read list of Top 10 Predictions for the wireless industry. These Predictions receive media coverage in well known business and consumer publications, as well as the industry trade press. For 2006 the Predictions were broadened to [...]
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May 15th, 2007
A great interview with the researchers that implemented aircrack-ptw for Breaking 104 Bit WEP In Less Than 60 Seconds.
When WEP was compromised in 2001, the attack needed more than five million packets to succeed. During the summer of 2004, a hacker named KoreK published a new WEP attack (called chopper) that reduced by an order [...]
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May 12th, 2007
Ad-hoc networking is a mode of wireless networking where two computers can communicate with each other without having to connect to an access point. The technical term of this mode of operation is IBSS – Independent Basic Service Set.
One of the most easiest ways to secure your computer from wireless threats, is to disable [...]
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April 29th, 2007
An evil twin access point as described in a Network World article is a
Wi-Fi access point that appears to be a legitimate one offered on the premises, but actually has been set up by a hacker to eavesdrop on wireless communications among Internet surfers.
In reality, if the goal is to just eavesdrop, then the [...]
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April 21st, 2007
Infosecurity Europe surveyed 320 companies and found that over one-fourth (26 percent) of organizations do not enforce a wireless security policy.
They also conducted in-depth interviews with 20 large-enterprise chief security officers (CSOs) and found that CSOs are more concerned about the dangers from user access to insecure wireless networks outside the office than company wireless [...]
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April 10th, 2007
“Breaking 104 bit WEP in less than 60 seconds” is the title of a paper by Erik Tews, Andrei Pychkine and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, three cryptographic researchers at the cryptography and computer algebra group at the technical university Darmstadt in Germany.
For those new to wireless LAN security and WEP cracking, WEP’s weaknesses have been known since [...]
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April 5th, 2007
A rogue wireless station is an unauthorized station connected to a network via an access point. The access point used for connectivity can either be a rogue access point or an authorized access point.
Unless the security of the wireless network is very weak, it can be assumed that a rogue access point also exists and [...]
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