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  • CWNP

Random Thoughts...

I was just thinking that if AT&T can screw people by charging them 20 cents EACH for receiving text messages they don't even want (usually from people they don't even know), then I'm sure someone is going to figure out how to do this on Wi-Fi soon enough.  I can see it now, "ToWiFi" - holy crap.

This week, I was just reading an Aruba whitepaper that reiterates the need for a static site survey when legacy clients are participating in an 802.11n infrastructure.  I also had conversations with several people who reiterated the Vocera and SpectraLink (now part of Polycom) don't support installations of their products when the controller is configured for "automatic power and channel assignments."  Bottom line: static site surveys are here to stay for a good long time. 

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  • CWNP

Where are all of the 802.11n books?

Good grief.  How long must we wait for someone to write a decent book on 802.11n?  From the various architectures to deployment strategies, there are dozens of small topics that need addressing.  Many vendor whitepapers are proving to be so full of marketing that they aren't useful, and the market needs a "best practices" document for rolling out 802.11n.  It would even be useful to cover additional topics such as how 802.11n affects VoWLAN deployments.

 

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  • CWNP

High Throughput Hounds of Hell Unleashed

It has officially started.  Hacking 802.11n was inevitable of course, and now we have Denial of Service (DoS) and Service Degradation attacks aimed squarely at 802.11n networks.  Using normal functions of the High Throughput (HT) PHY/MAC such as Block ACKs and coexistance (protection) mechanisms is a perfect place for a hacker to start because those features are required for proper operation.

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  • CWNP

Mid Market Mania

How many times have you visited a small business where the owner or manager is trying to play "techie" due to the high costs of hiring consultants?  To make matters worse, this person also thinks he has a solid grasp on network fundamentals.  He calls you to come have a look at a 'seemingly random, but minor' network problem because he met you 10 years ago for 20 seconds at a seminar you don't even remember attending.

You oblige of course, and...

 

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  • CWNP

Hacking & Solutions: Cracking WEP and WPA2-PSK

This article is presented as part of hacking + solution track for Wireless Security Expo 2008.  Before reading the solutions article, make sure you have watched the hacking video.  Videos are available by registering here .

Cracking WEP is old-hat, but the newer WPA/WPA2-Personal can be cracked too.  See how its done and see how to secure against it.

 

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  • CWNP

Whitepaper Lies

OK, so a guy can only take so much before he has to say something...  I read just about every WLAN whitepaper that is released - and some that aren't.  One thing that is getting worse and worse is the fact that vendors are using the term "whitepaper" to disguise what the document really is - marketing propaganda.  Some vendors feel that it's necessary to make their whitepapers 30-40 pages long so that they can thoroughly explain their marketing propaganda - or perhaps overwhelm the reader with so much information that the reader just assumes everything that is said is true.  This practice has got to stop.  Obviously the vendors won't stop producing these kinds of misleading documents until customers, VARs, and potential customers provide some negative feedback. Continue reading...

  • CWNP

Hacking & Solutions: 802.11 Protocol Attacks, Deauthentication

This article is presented as part of hacking + solution track for Wireless Security Expo 2008.

Deauthentication is the most common form of 802.11 protocol denial-of-service (DoS) attack.  After watching the Deauthentication video, you can see that performing this type of attack takes seconds using common and user-friendly software and hardware, can wreak havoc on a network, and can be used as part of other types of wireless network attacks.  Deauthentication frames are considered notifications, not requests, which means any associated station or AP that receives a deauthentication frame must comply.

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  • CWNP

Hacking & Solutions: Cracking Cisco LEAP Authentication

This article is presented as part of hacking + solution track for Wireless Security Expo 2008.

By watching the "Cracking Cisco LEAP" video, you will discover just how insecure LEAP is.  It takes only seconds to break using any reasonable dictionary file and commonly available and user-friendly software tools. 

 

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  • CWNP

Home Wireless Security

Cisco just released an article talking about how greater diligence is needed toward home Wi-Fi security.

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=817510

No doubt about it - they're right.  So what is the market supposed to do?  We have Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) that dumbs Wi-Fi security down to a point where any chimpanzee could configure it.  In my humble opinion, configuring WPA2-Personal with a strong passphrase is almost that easy as well when you're dealing with a SOHO class AP or WLAN router.  I'm not sure it can get any easier from a technical standpoint.  Hey, wait, I've got an idea - EDUCATION!

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  • CWNP

Wi-Fi Protocol Analyzers on Linux

So far, all we have is Wireshark and a hot-rodded version thereof called Airpcap by Cace Technologies.  I'd love to see some of the vendors that we've been using for some time now (e.g. AirMagnet, Wildpackets, Tamosoft, AirDefense, Network Chemistry (now Aruba), and even Fluke Networks) come out with a made-for-Linux version of their laptop-based protocol analysis software.  Why?  Because I think that Microsoft is going to bite the dust with Vista.  I hate Vista, though I've always been a big fan of XP/sp2.  Everyone I know that has used Vista hates Vista - and complains constantly.  I'm reasonably sure that Vista even has a bad case of self-loathing.  With no reasonable path forward with the Windows operating system, that leaves us poor networking junkies with two equally scary choices:

MAC or Linux

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