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 enabled on LAN.

Security and the tsunami SSID

Cisco quote below….

In Cisco IOS Release 12.3(4)JA and later, the access point radios are disabled by default, and there is no SSID. You must create an SSID and enable the radios before the access point will allow wireless associations from other devices. These changes to the default configuration improve the security of newly installed access points.

Since newer access points ship with no default SSID and radio disabled, any AP with tsunami as the SSID is probably an older access point and an easy way for attackers to identify which network to target first.

Connecting to tsunami SSID

Keeping software versions up to date and changing default settings are very easy tasks. If you must connect to a wireless network with tsunami as the SSID, it should be treated as an untrusted network and data in transit encryption (VPN) should be used.

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Filed under: WLAN Security