Re: firewall package for laptop wi-fi client
On Qua, 05 Jan 2011, Andrei Popescu wrote:
By "physical access to the network" you mean the internet, right?
Because that's what's past my AP... AFAIK it's just a bit more difficult
to intercept the traffic, that's all.
I'm talking about LAN traffic, not internet traffic. Intercepting
traffic sent by the guy in the next table in the café.
Also, I wouldn't consider sniffing internet traffic "just a bit more
difficult". Certainly can be done under the right circunstances and
with the right tools, but it's not trivial.
If the wireless network is open, however, i just need a laptop with a
supported wireless car, be in range of the network, and fire up kismet
or a similar tool, and all traffic going thru the air can be read. I
believe this is completely passive, so no one can detect that traffic
is being read, unlike sniffing internet traffic - somehow you must
reroute the traffic to your machine, which leaves traces. Since the
wireless traffic is not encrypted, anything not protected by SSL or
similar can be immediately read.
If the wireless is encrypted, however, all I would get is encrypted
data. WEP can always be broken with enough traffic; for WAP there are
some attacks but I believe they are not yet as general and easy. It's
certainly not 100% secure (nothing really is), and less secure than
connecting via a cabled connection (which requires physical access to
the LAN, instead of just being within range, and some technique such
as ARP spoofing to be able to receive packages not meant for you), but
certainly better than an open network.
Whenever I'm connected to an open AP I just consider my laptop connected
directly[1] to the internet, with all inherent risks.
[1] even though most APs have at least NAT
Again, I was referring to sniffing by other people in the same AP,
before it reaches the internet.
--
<Knghtbrd> I can think of lots of people who need USER=ID10T someplace!
Eduardo M KALINOWSKI
eduardo@kalinowski.com.br
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