[CLUE-Tech] WEP security?

[Adam Bultman]

>
> If I was in your situation, I'd certainly be using IPSec (I don't know how
> to set it up, but I'd get through it somehow, I guess). Especially after
> this individual TOLD you his intentions.

I've been making movements to set stuff like that up.  So far, we do MAC
address restrictions, and it's often a pain to set up new MAC addresses.
The biggest problem is time, however, I'm afraid. Most people that use
this are more than happy to go along with anything we do - but setting it
up for too many people gets cumbersome.  But it's still something we
should all do.  I'm afraid the WAP, and Cable Internet owner is a lazy
dude, and doesn't know much about linux to begin with.   We try to keep
people from noticing we are using the connection here.  Erm, at least, I
do.

>
> My question is, what kept you from placing your hands around his neck, and
> wringing it? It's bad enough when someone is skulking around doing something
> like this, but to proudly announce to you that he's going to steal from you?
> I'd have a hard time not getting physical... :)
>

Let's just say that I am VERY slow to anger.  But once I am, you are
pretty much done for.  I'm not a weak dude, either.  The main reason is
because when it comes to linux, there are a lot of people that know their
stuff; but there are 10 times more who boast, lie, and generally, try to
impress people by dropping keywords, etc.  Someone THAT brash is likely to
be a liar.  Simply.  A true hacker/cracker/whatever probably wouldn't
indicate what he was doing - after all - why put someone on their extreme
guard?  As well:  there are a very smal number of people who use the WAP.
Most traffic is during the morning, when no one else is around that is
like that (mostly mothers/kids, students, etc). In the evenings, there
either is no traffic at all, or, if there is traffic, anyone else with a
laptop is being watched. This isn't to say that someone around isn't
sniffing our packets - there is another apartment complex right here - but
most of them are just 'burners'.  Finally:  Luckily, there is another WAP
in another building, which allows one's card to get confused, especially
when picking up weak signals.  The 'smokers section' of the shop has the
strongest connection, and no one with laptops are usually out there.  You
need a good card to get any connection whatsoever here.




> BTW: can you spoof MAC addresses with IPSec? Does IPSec have weaknesses that
> can be exploited?
> /
unknown to me.

>
> What is a phone loser? I know what a phreaker is, but I'm not familiar with
> this term.
>

You don't know what a phone loser is?  I think http://www.phonelosers.org
or something like that is the right site. Google for phone losers of
america (I'd search for it, but I'm in the coffee shop right now..).  It
is basically of what you speak - phreakers - but for the most part, the
'phone losers' around here are just 'plain losers' - they trash things,
they steal, they cheat, etc.  Basically.  I met most of the 'west
michigan' morons this way through Rubi Con (http://www.rubi-con.org) a
yearly 'hacker conference', which, in actuality, is just a bunch of kids
going around, trashing a hotel and getting good and drunk.   Nicely
enough, we set  up a WAP there, and allowed free access to the DSL. Aren't
we nice?  We could even surf at the bar (a REAL big plus).

So,  I'm not too worried.  I pass AIM traffic, and HTTP traffic in
plaintext. All the rest is either via SSL or SSH. IF I knew how to tunnel
it correctly, I'd tunnel my AIM and HTTP through SSH to the linux box, and
encrypt stuff more.


So, the WAP is nice, it's nice to work from a coffee shop, where TV,
games, and my cushy bed can't tempt, but on the other hand, it's morons
like that one kid which are the bane of normal people's existences...

Oh, well.  I see I'm ranting, as usual.

> I don't understand that, either. Maybe you can rotate them on the client w/o
> having to change the WAP? If they are nearly plaintext, it seems futile,
> anyway.

I don't know.  The WAP creates a handful of keys per password, but only
one works.  Whatever, I don't get it. Things might be a tad more secure if
we each had our own keys. Speaking of which, time to send out the email
about key rotation.

If you feel like gabbing more, drop me a line, and we can take my tirades
off-list, or even more real time, via IM.


Adam




-- 
Adam Bultman
adam at glaven.org
[ http://www.glaven.org ]