wireless "snooping"?

[xchangx]

How do wireless networking prevent snoopers? Like in my dorm room, if someone bought a wireless card, could they use the internet through my AP? Or do the AP's have some sort of way of knowing which cards to look at.

Chang

 

[spidey07]

wireless networking is completely open to anyone who wants to exploit it. I've often felt like driving around the neighborhood just looking for access points just for kicks.

Yes, wireless can be hacked and accessed if somebody wants to. Does this worry you? well, that's tuff to call. for my home network I really couldn't care less. when it comes to my paycheck, damn straight i care.

 

[xchangx]

well it doesn't really bother me, I was just wondering if there were any security measures in the AP. I doubt anyone else in my dorm have AP's so...


Chang

 

[Halz]

There are three major lines of security you can have with wireless, and with each a large downfall...

One: Specify in the AP the MAC address of the 802.11b adapter(s) connecting to the network
Downfall: Its downright easy to spoof a MAC address; APs can have hardware limitations to how many MAC addresses they can hold.

Two: A 'secret' network name; something as opposed to 'Any'
Downfall: Sniffers can easily pluck network names out of the traffic, or even bruteforced

Three: 40Bit WEP encryption. An encryption key between the AP and all connecting devices
Downfall: Programs are now avaible that will pick interesting packets from the air and filter out the unique key by processes of comparision. Not to mention WEP was pretty much 'broken' from the start..


The only secure practical method of implementing a wireless solution is to use the wireless beyond any router in your network; the DMZ, and connect to whatever networks inside of that router with a VPN server/client. But then... your packets can still be captured and ripped apart to find something potentially interesting with enough CPU cycles deticated to it.