Re: WPA needs SSID broadcast?

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Thu, 2006-04-27 at 15:54 -0400, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-04-27 at 21:21 +0200, Jurgen Kramer wrote:
> > I finally moved my wireless connection from WEP128 to WPA-PSK now that
> > NetworkManager supports it out-of-the-box in FC5. Although WPA works, it
> > only does so when a enable SSID broadcasting. Is this normal for WPA?
> > I'd really like to disable SSID broadcasting again.
> 
> 	I can't speak to what NetworkManager does or doesn't do.  I don't use
> it and don't care for it.  I have noticed with wpa-supplicant, which
> NetworkManager uses, that I have needed to specify the expected SSID in
> advance in the ifcfg-{device} file for some networks.  I presumed that's
> because of the SSID broadcast, or lack thereof.  If I don't specify the
> SSID in advance, wpa-supplicant will grab whatever network is
> broadcasting an SSID that it knows about.  If it can't see that
> broadcast poll, then it won't see the network is there to try and
> configure against it, and there you are.  Preconfiguring an SSID in the
> WLAN card setup before firing up wpa-supplicate does seem to get around
> that.
> 
> 	Couple of points...
> 
> 	* WPA-PSK...  I hope you configured a REALLY strong WPA-PSK password.
> For even respectable passwords (less than 20 characters) WPA-PSK may be
> easier to break than WEP128.  An attacker only has to capture 4 packets
> for WPA-PSK (as opposed to a half a million or so for a reasonable
> WEP128 crack using aircrack or such) and they can then do an off-line
> brute force attack on the PSK.
> 
> 	Robert Moskowitz, Senior Technical Director of ICSA Labs wrote this
> back in late 2003:
> 
> 	http://wifinetnews.com/archives/002452.html
> 
> > A passphrase typically has about 2.5 bits of security per character,
> > so the passphrase of n bytes equates to a key with about 2.5n + 12
> > bits of security. Hence, it provides a relatively low level of
> > security, with keys generated from short passwords subject to
> > dictionary attack. Use of the key hash is recommended only where it is
> > impractical to make use of a stronger form of user authentication. A
> > key generated from a passphrase of less than about 20 characters is
> > unlikely to deter attacks.
> > 
> > The PTK is used in the 4-Way handshake to produce a hash of the
> > frames. There is a long history of offline dictionary attacks against
> > hashes. Any of these programs can be altered to use the information in
> > the 4-Way Handshake as input to perform the offline attack. Just about
> > any 8-character string a user may select will be in the dictionary. As
> > the standard states, passphrases longer than 20 characters are needed
> > to start deterring attacks. This is considerably longer than most
> > people will be willing to use.
> > 
> > This offline attack should be easier to execute than the WEP attacks.
> 
> 
> 	Since you can "force" and active connection to an AP to "disassociate",
> you can force the client to reauthenticate so it's really easy to get
> those first 4 packets of the WPA-PSK authentication.
> 
> 
> 	* SSID broadcast.  Why worry about not broadcasting the SSID?  Turning
> off SSID broadcast is of no benefit, security wise.  Kismet and other,
> similar, tools readily "decloak" networks which don't broadcast SSID, so
> you're not hiding much (you're not hiding ANYTHING, in fact).  I've
> heard the argument that broadcasting the SSID is like having a welcome,
> open to the public, sign out front and not broadcasting is indicating
> that this is not a "public" access point.  That argument only goes so
> far, though.  The fact that you are encrypted is argument enough that it
> is not a "open" access point, for those who do not have the key.
> 
> 	The other argument (and this goes both ways) is that not broadcasting
> the SSID removes that AP from the network list of "available" networks
> (say in Windows WiFi available networks list).  Ok...  Then you have to
> explicitly specify the SSID to being with.  So, that relates back to
> your original question.  Do you want your connections to your AP to
> autoconfigure or not?  That's your choice to make.
> 
> > This is with my laptop with a Intel IPW2200 and a Netgear DG834G
> > wireless router. I've also seen the same behavior when I tried using WPA
> > with a US Robotics router.
> > 
> > Jurgen

Thanks for the insight, I will lengthen my WPA password a bit. WPA2
would probably the better option but it seem it is not supported yet?

Jurgen

> 	Mike
> -- 
> fedora-list mailing list
> fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx
> To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list


[Index of Archives]     [Current Fedora Users]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Yosemite News]     [Yosemite Photos]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora Tools]     [Fedora Docs]

  Powered by Linux