Wireless Security Basics

[jlc]

Wireless Security Guide

 

Brief, but pretty decent.

[papaschtroumpf]

Hiding SSID and MAC filtering do almost nothing towards wireless security. It's all BS from the manufacturers to make you fell more secure.

 

The AP may hide its SSID but that means that the device will need to broadcast it as part of their probe requests in order to connect to the AP, so all you have to do is sniff a device connecting on.

 

MAC filtering is just as useless: the driers in my wireless card allow me to change its MAC address at will, so all I have to do is sniff one packet and I know one authorized MAC address.

 

128 WEP can be cracked but it does take a long time, especially if you have light wireless traffic. Proprietary key rotation mechanisms help a lot.

 

WPA is much better than WEP, each device has its own private key that changes over time. It can be harder to administer.

[tyme]

While what you say is true, papaschtroumpf, keep in mind the following:

 

1) Any defense is better than no defense.

2) While it won't keep out a determined "hacker", it will keep out those walking around with their wireless system just looking for an open connection to leech off of.

3) Any form of wireless security is no excuse for not having a firewall in place both one the internet connection and on your system.

[Cannonfodder]

Still good info to know. I have a wireless router and plan to get another computer soon so I'll need to beef security and need to know things like this..