[PLUG] wifi WEP security problems

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Tim" == Tim  <tim-pdxlug at sentinelchicken.org> writes:

Russell> I think all networks should be open and available to share,
Russell> as security guru Bruce Schneier does[1], but I defer to the
Russell> node owner to make that decision.  Sharing is the polite and
Russell> neighborly choice.  If you want to be a hoarding a**hole,
Russell> that is absolutely your right.

Tim> Well I have nothing against altruism, but unfortunately there are
Tim> always those out there who will exploit the good will of others.

Not always.  Often there are not.  E.g. my node has been providing
access to something like 20 of my neighbors a day.  Rarely (like, none
in at least the last 6 months) have abused the network.  And were they
to, I have the means to teach them better behavior.

Tim> If you made all of your wifi traffic cleartext, then there's
Tim> always a chance that your neighbor will spy on what you're doing.

Red herring.  Almost nothing (save maybe pop-mail) sends anything
terribly sensitive over the air in the clear.  Any commerce traffic
damn well better be encrypted end-to-end.  Any candy-ass wifi
encryption isn't going to do you a damn bit of good once it's left
your house.

Tim> (Or perhaps more likely, the guy that compromised his windoze box
Tim> will sniff all wireless packets around to gather passwords.)
Tim> Some of us do things with our computers that we'd rather not have
Tim> known by our neighbors.

Encrypted tunnels of various descriptions can help you out there.

Russell> Ask not what free wifi can do for you, ask what you can do
Russell> for free wifi.

Tim> I have often had the desire to set up a secondary open network
Tim> with reasonably throttled bandwidth for just this purpose.  Maybe
Tim> sometime you could help me out with that.

That's the spirit.

Tim> There are some legal worries I have about this though.  As you
Tim> mentioned above, having a locked down wireless network implies
Tim> that you don't want others snooping around on it.  If you could
Tim> actually ever catch someone cracking it (which is highly
Tim> unlikely), then you would have some legal recourse.

If your network is open, no one is cracking your network.  If they are
messing with your boxes, there are already laws against that.

Tim> On another legal point, if you open up your wireless network to
Tim> share with others, you immediately become a provider under
Tim> federal laws such as the ECPA, Wiretap act, and Pen registers
Tim> tap/trace act.  [...]

I am not a lawyer, but I have yet to find or hear of any significant
risk from any statute for making your wifi network open.  If there
were, don't you think someone would have already cracked down hard on
some poor coffee shop owners?


-- 
Russell Senior, Secretary
russell at personaltelco.net