Due to the overwhelming attendance and response we got to the recent WPA2 Hole196 webinar, we did not have time to answer all the questions asked during the webinar. In this post, we are keeping our promise and answering those webinar questions.
By the way, the webinar slides and recording from this webinar as well as answers to the frequently asked questions on Hole196 and a white paper are available here.
So here we go!
Wi-Fi security has experienced a lot of churn over the last decade. As protocols like WEP and TKIP fell by the wayside, WPA2 emerged as the “Last Wi-Fi Security Protocol Standing.” Wi-Fi Alliance recently announced its plan to phase out WEP and TKIP, promoting WPA2 as the go-to security standard.
With solid protection in the form of AES encryption and 802.1x based authentication, there was no reason to look beyond. WPA2 did its job well keeping the bad guys outside, out of the network. And traditionally that has always been the focus of Wi-Fi security.
But…! Read more…
The WiFi snooping row Google has gotten itself into seems to be far from over. In April, Google revealed that its Street View cars had been collecting basic data such as the MAC addresses and SSIDs of WiFi networks in the vicinity. But after German authorities asked Google to audit the data, it admitted to have been “mistakenly” snooping payload data from Open WiFi networks. Apparently, a piece of WiFi data analysis code, written by Google engineers back in 2006, was part of the software used by the Street View cars, in turn leading to the WiFi snooping (of about 600 GB of data across 30 countries!). Read more…
With more enterprises deploying wireless LANs and employee-owned WiFi devices flooding enterprises, wireless LAN forensics is becoming a key component of any network forensic audit — whether to prove compliance with a regulation such as PCI DSS or in response to a security incidence. But wireless presents unique challenges to forensic audits.
Last month, at RSA 2010 conference in San Francisco, I had the oppourtunity to discuss this issue with experienced auditor and certified PCI QSA Jim Cowing. Here you can view the video recording of an abridged version of our RSA 2010 talk “Anatomy of a Forensic Audit: How Wireless Changes the Game.”
Let me summarize the highlights from the talk: Read more…
Best practices, Compliance, PCI, Wireless scanning, Wireless security
Every now and then we run into network administrators and CSOs that brag about how their organization is not vulnerable to wireless security threats, only to see their rash confidence fizzle out once the results from a wireless vulnerability assessment or penetration test are out.
Today, most are aware that Open WiFi on enterprise network is foolish and using WEP encryption is a bad idea and that WPA2/802.1x is the way to go. Then where do they go wrong?
A cloud-based service called WPA Cracker launched last week promises to crack WPA-PSK (WiFi Protected Access with Pre-Shared Keying) for you starting $17 .
Like any other password-based authentication system, WPA-PSK (and WPA2-PSK) is vulnerable to a “dictionary attack.” This is a brute force technique in which a hacker uses a dictionary or database of commonly used passwords to guess the WPA encryption key. The problem with this approach is that it might take days or weeks to crack even a moderately strong password with a typical PC.
What makes the WPA Cracker service interesting is that it provides you access to huge amount of computing power using a 400-node cluster. The service promises to parse a dictionary of 135 million passwords and email you the results in 20 minutes for $34. If that price tag sounds steep or if you are ready to wait longer, then you can pay $17 to use half the cluster and receive the results by email in 40 minutes.
The service is targeted to ethical hackers that do wireless vulnerability assessment and wireless network penetration testing for a living. But I wonder…what would keep the “unethical” hackers from misusing a cloud-based service like this.
Not every cloud has a silver lining. What do you think?
Finally the news that everybody in the WiFi world has been waiting for! Exactly six years after the 802.11n task group was formed, 802.11n got the final ratification as IEEE standard last Friday.
It has also been reported that 802.11w (protection for 802.11 management frames) was also approved as a standard in the IEEE Standards Board meeting.
If you are now looking forward to rolling out a fresh 802.11n deployment or migrating parts of your WLAN to 802.11n, you may want to look at this informative white paper 802.11n The Good The Bad The Ugly: Will You Be Ready? and watch the archived webinar 802.11n deployment checklist — what you need to know before you start by Sri Sundaralingam and Lisa Phifer.
Any organization handling payment card data should pay immediate attention to the PCI DSS Wireless Guideline published by the PCI Security Standards Council Wireless Special Interest Group last week.
Wireless Threats That Can Compromise PCI DSS Compliance
The key highlights are:
About two and half years after the TJX debacle shook the retail industry, TJX reached a settlement with 41 US states that cost it $9.75 million. This is only part of the cost TJX is paying for ignoring its WiFi security. According to Reuters, the company is said to have set aside reserve fund of $107 million to cover losses. As a part of the settlement, TJX has agreed to meet “contemporary standards” of data security which includes upgrading its WiFi security.
This unprecedented security breach and the aftermath have, once again, brought to light the risks from unsecured WiFi networks. The PCI Security Standards Council responded well with new wireless security requirements in version 1.2 of its Data Security Standard (PCI DSS 1.2) . The intent is there. Let’s hope that the PCI guidelines get transfered from paper into practice and history does not repeat itself!
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Govt. of India, has set a June 2009 deadline for complying with its regulation on WiFi security. Here’s a position paper that evaluates the DoT regulation and suggests best practices for secure use of WiFi.
