AirSnort is a wireless LAN (WLAN) tool which recovers encryption keys. AirSnort operates by passively monitoring transmissions, computing the encryption key when enough packets have been gathered. Via [airsnort.shmoo.com]
"This is why I love New York," says Anthony Townsend, standing in the middle of Washington Square Park, holding his laptop computer like a butler's tray and scanning the adult playground the place becomes on hot summer evenings. Where else, he asks, can you walk around with a computer, surf the Web, and go utterly...
A group of researchers from Rice University and AT&T Labs have used off-the-shelf methods to carry out an attack on a known wireless encryption flaw -- to prove that it "could work in the real world." Via [cnn.com]
A new report dashes any remaining illusions that 802.11-based (Wi-Fi) wireless local-area networks are in any way secure. The paper, written by three of the world's foremost cryptographers, describes a devastating attack on the RC4 cipher, on which the WLAN wired-equivalent privacy (WEP) encryption scheme is based. Via [eetimes.com]
From etiquette experts to senior executives at Microsoft, a growing number of people say wireless Internet access is becoming an annoyance--a technology that could potentially become more annoying than cell phones or pagers. They point to the alarming number of attendants at technology conferences and even internal office meetings who ignore speakers to focus on...
When you start Windows NT, NTDETECT searches for the pointing device (usually a mouse). In the course of this process, data is sent to the serial (COM) ports. If a serial mouse is detected, Windows NT disables the port so a device driver for the mouse can load instead. If a device is not detected,...
As more companies start to deploy wireless networking, important security aspects are often overlooked. Wireless networking was initially marketed towards home consumers and specialized applications, but was limited by low throughput speeds. As the technology matured, networking standards were introduced to ensure interoperability between vendors, and greater speeds were obtained. Driven by both the demands...
It's hard to tell whether these things are a threat or an opportunity for ISPs. I'm talking about community wireless networks using inexpensive 802.11b radios and antennas operating in the 2.4 GHz spectrum band, and possibly other license-free bands. Via [isp-planet.com]
IBM Research has demonstrated the industry's first automated auditing tool that can monitor 802.11 wireless networks and collect security-related information, allowing system administrators to take proper actions to improve network security. The Wireless Security Auditor, a prototype application running on Linux, enables network administrators to find vulnerable access points by monitoring and analyzing them in...
Not long ago, when wireless networking was new and rare, security was an afterthought. The reason? The scarcity of 802.11b cards acted as a form of back-handed security. If no one had an 802.11b card, outsiders couldn't very well scan your setup, right? Now, however, that's changed. Wireless gear is readily available--and cheap--so that almost...
Before emailing me to ask for new features and bug fixes, please bear in mind that I'm writing this in my spare time. My family and job come first.
NetStumbler is a Windows Utility for AP Mapping (a.k.a. War Driving, Lan Mapping). Currently the software is still in development. If you would like a pre-release copy please email the author Marius Milner.