Wireless Security Attacks and Defenses

An anonymous reader writes "IT-Observer is running a comprehensive overview of wireless attacks and defenses. From the article: 'Wireless technology can provide numerous benefits in the business world. By deploying wireless networks, customers, partners, and employees are given the freedom of mobility from within and from outside of the organization. This can help businesses to increase productivity and effectiveness, lower costs and increase scalability, improve relationships with business partners, and attract new customers.'"

Article with pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

Article didn't seem to have the pictures and diagrams that the text referred to. http://www.windowsecurity.com/whitepapers/Wireless -Security-Attacks-Defenses.html [windowsecurity.com] is a version of the article with those pictures

Unbelievable fluff: why did it get posted???

[postbigbang]

Three guys named Brad and another one named Josh post a fluffy little article on security for wireless, then cover about 1/3rd of the basics, and none of the tough stuff.

In a word, they should be punished. And someone should tape their eyes open while reading WiFoo or another good book on just how many zillion interesting hacks there are for wireless. And then, the site should get the check back-- if they were so silly as to have paid these guys.

And I wonder, how many more airy and light posts will there be, today? Slashdot Lite, less filling, less intelligent-- news for birds.

The article is 100% wrongheaded

[drinkypoo]

Look at page 3. It's the one where they tell you what you should do to secure your network.

Even with its inherent weaknesses, Wireless Encryption Protocols or WEP is still a good method for preventing attackers from capturing your network traffic. Less-experienced hackers will probably not even attempt to capture data packets from a wireless network that is broadcasting using WEP.

Bullshit. Everything you need to do this can be found on a single Linux LiveCD (Auditor Linux) including the kit for doing replay attacks. Only unmotivated "hackers" will fail to crack WEP.

Score: 0/1

MAC Address Blocking - For smaller, more static networks you can specify which computers should be able access to your wireless access points. Telling the access points which hardware MAC addresses can join the network does this. Although, like WEP, in which this can be bypassed by knowledgeable hackers, it is still a valid method for keeping many intruders at bay.

Bullshit. Again, this will only get people who are unmotivated. MAC spoofing is a triviality. It typically will stop drive-by users of wifi, because they can usually find one that has no "protection" and they can use that. MAC restriction will NOT stop anyone who wants onto your network for any reason other than a minor whim.

Score: 0/2

Ditch the Defaults - Most wireless devices are being sold today with default configurations that are easily exploited. The three main areas to watch out for are the router administration passwords, SSID broadcasting, and the channel used to broadcast the signal.

Using a halfway decent scanner makes ANY settings changes you do (besides turning on WPA) utterly useless.

Score: 0/3

Beacon Intervals [...] These intervals should be maximized to make it more difficult to find the network. The network appears quieter and any passive listening devices are not as productive at gathering and cracking encryption keys.

Again, a good scanner makes this irrelevant.

Score: 0/4

Access Lists - Using MAC ACL's (MAC Address Access List) creates another level of difficulty to hacking a network. A MAC ACL is created and distributed to AP so that only authorized NIC's can connect to the network.

Uh, this is the same thing as "mac address blocking". They're the SAME FEATURE, just one is default accept, and the other is default deny.

Score: 0/5 (I should really assign a negative point for trying to use the same feature as a bullet point twice, but I'll be nice.)

Controlling Reset - Something as simple as controlling the reset function can add a great deal of security and reduce the risk of potential hack to your network. After all the security measures are in place and the proper encryption settings are enforced, the factory built "reset" button available on nearly all wireless routers/AP's can, in an obvious way, wipe out everything.

If someone has physical access to your AP, you're fucked anyway. If they can do remote admin in your AP, you're an idiot anyway - and turning off remote admin isn't even listed as a good idea here.

Score: 0/6

Disable DHCP - Disabling the use of DHCP in a wireless network is again, a simple but effective roadblock to potential hackers.

No, it isn't. A few moments of sniffing will tell you what you need to know. Utterly useless and it just makes your life harder.

Score: 0/7

This article tells you nothing about how to effectively secure your network. In fact, it tells you to do a whole bunch of things that won't work.

Want to secure wifi? There is only one means to do so, and that is to use a tunnel with strong encryption. Whether you're using com

Article Can't Be Current

[IEEEmember]

The May 10th, 2006 date on this article must be wrong. The article is obviously months or years old. The lack of information about WPA, the discussion of warchalking and the dates of the referenced material all indicate this article was written sometime in early 2005 or late 2004. It was posted on invulnerableit in 11/2005, but I suspect it is older than that.

Re:The article is 100% wrongheaded

[C_Kode]

Look at page 3. It's the one where they tell you what you should do to secure your network.

        Even with its inherent weaknesses, Wireless Encryption Protocols or WEP is still a good method for preventing attackers from capturing your network traffic. Less-experienced hackers will probably not even attempt to capture data packets from a wireless network that is broadcasting using WEP.

Bullshit. Everything you need to do this can be found on a single Linux LiveCD (Auditor Linux) including the kit for doing replay attacks. Only unmotivated "hackers" will fail to crack WEP.

Basically he said something is better than nothing. A lock on your front door isn't going to stop someone serious about breaking in, but it will stop your neighbor from peaking around inside your house because you left your door wide open. While everything you noted is true, he wasn't claiming that WEP is secure and he noted that clearly. He only said it's better than nothing. He should have said WEP is better than having an open network for anyone to connect to instead of WEP is still a good method for preventing attackers from capturing your network traffic.

Re:The article is 100% wrongheaded

[GonzoBob]

Good Comments: For anyone wanting to forego the joy of reading up on this material Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte have an excellent security podcast which has several episodes covering topics like WEP WPA ect. More info can be found at grc.com/SecurityNow.htm

Re:The article is 100% wrongheaded

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everyone has WPA-capable devices. Everyone has WEP.