[ale] wireless sanity/security check

[Jeff Hubbs]

Just to at least partially answer my own question - I found this at 
http://forum.codecall.net/security-tutorials/13997-cracking-wpa-wpa2-networks.html 
that would seem to suggest an implication of a notion that WPA2 isn't 
much better than WPA w.r.t. crackability...true?

- Jeff

On 1/6/10 10:51 AM, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> Can someone elaborate on this WPA/WPA2 vulnerability issue?
>
> - Jeff
>
> On 1/5/10 9:41 AM, Jeff Lightner wrote:
>    
>> By the way - WPA can be cracked in less than an hour as demonstrated a
>> couple of months ago.  WPA2 is the way to go.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Pat
>> Regan
>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 11:24 PM
>> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
>> Subject: Re: [ale] wireless sanity/security check
>>
>> On 01/04/2010 05:17 PM, Mark Wright wrote:
>>
>>      
>>> I didn't ask the question about wireless security because I thought
>>> wifi could be intrusion proof.  I just wanted to confirm that giving
>>> my friends advice to use MAC filtering wasn't real bad advice.   They
>>> had failed to get WPA working and there were Christmas presents that
>>> were not being played with.
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>> MAC filtering will not keep very many people out if they are actively
>> trying to "steal" your bandwidth.  The only people you're likely to keep
>>
>> out with MAC filtering are the people who think they are connecting to
>> their own network but they are connecting to yours by mistake.  It is
>> amazing how often that happens.
>>
>> I'm much more paranoid about connecting to an unknown network than I am
>> about people cracking into mine.  I seem especially paranoid in hotels.
>>     I know that if I can fire up wireshark and steal unencrypted pop,
>> imap, and instant messenger password, so can someone else.
>>
>> I nearly always VPN or use an SSH proxy on any scary wifi connection :).
>>
>>
>>      
>>> The problem is both of my friends couldn't get WPA to work.  My
>>> wife's sister in law was refusing to use her new laptop because her
>>> husband had turned WPA off to get it on the internet.  I told them
>>> how to set up MAC filtering over the phone and now she is surfing the
>>> internet confident that her computer is safe.  Just like she sleeps
>>> soundly because she doesn't know how easy it is to break into her
>>> locked house.
>>>
>>>        
>> With any semi-modern hardware (3-4+ years?) I wouldn't expect wpa/wpa2
>> to be a problem.  WEP tends to be problematic because there is more than
>>
>> one algorithm for converting a passphrase to a hex key.
>>
>> MAC filtering will likely narrow the opportunity for attack, though.  If
>>
>> someone drives by while no authorized machines are connected then they
>> will not see any valid MAC addresses to clone.
>>
>> Pat
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