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Thread: Hacking with a Pringles tube

  1. #1
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    Hacking with a Pringles tube

    I had to post this. It's funny, yet scary.....

    ------------------------------

    Empty cans of Pringles crisps could be helping malicious hackers spot wireless networks that are open to attack. Security company i-sec has demonstrated that a directional antenna made with a Pringles can significantly improves the chances of finding the wireless computer networks being used in London's financial district.

    An informal survey carried out by i-sec using the homemade antenna has found that over two-thirds of networks were doing nothing to protect themselves.

    The security firm said all the companies at risk could easily thwart anyone that wanted to find and penetrate their network by making a few simple changes to the hardware used to build the wireless networks.

    Hack here

    In November last year BBC News Online was shown just how easy it is to find and gain information about wireless networks.

    These networks are rapidly becoming popular because they are cheap, easy to set up and replace the unsightly cables that many companies have used to link PCs together into networks.

    But the convenience of using radio waves to transfer data between machines is not without its risks.

    Many curious hackers have started carrying out so-called war-driving expeditions.

    US security expert Peter Shipley invented the practice. It involves driving around an area using a laptop fitted with a wireless network card to find and map out the networks.

    Crisp signal

    Wireless, or WiFi, networks have an encryption system built in, but it is not turned on when the basic hardware of the network is set up.

    Geoff Davies, managing director of i-sec, said its informal survey revealed that 67% of the networks it found had this encryption system turned off.

    "Many companies are going out and buying a wireless access point to see what it can do," said Mr Davies. "The problem is that they have opened a great big back door into their network."

    He said that i-sec had boosted the chance of spotting networks by converting an empty can of Pringles into a directional, or Yagi, antenna. Plans to make such an antenna first appeared on the net last year.

    Properly made, such an antenna can boost signal strengths by up to 15%, vastly aiding the discovery of wireless networks.

    Potential for havoc

    In one 30-minute journey using the Pringles can antenna, witnessed by BBC News Online, i-sec managed to find almost 60 wireless networks.

    "People have made these antennae out of Pringles tubes, coffee cans and even old satellite dishes," said Mr Davies.

    "Those doing [war-driving] are not necessarily looking to take down corporate networks, they are looking to use corporate bandwidth," said Mr Davies.

    "But if they are doing that then someone with more nefarious purpose could wreak havoc."

    Mr Davies said that a few basic steps such as changing default names, moving wireless access points to the centre of a building and switching off the networks' broadcast functions could help significantly improve the security of these systems.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1860241.stm
    An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure...
     

  2. #2
    Once you pop you just can't stop. I think this gives new meaning to that phrase. I found the artical amussing, yet a little bit scarry aswell. Maybe the fcc should be monitoring prigles sales world wide?

    NOT!!
    LATER-
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  3. #3
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    Very nice,
    Cool idea, I think.
    I am going to try and construct one myself.
    \"To follow the path:
    look to the master,
    follow the master,
    walk with the master,
    see through the master,
    become the master.\"
    -Unknown

  4. #4
    Yeah its one of the reasons I wanna get a laptop with 802.11b someday... Anyone knows if there are enough open networks to connect to the net and do something useful in Montreal downtown ?

  5. #5
    Priapistic Monk KorpDeath's Avatar
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    All you have to do is plug in the wireless card and do a scan. I've found over 200 networks that I could complete a connection with just on my drive in to my office.. And 3/4 of those I could surf the web. So not only are they not secure but they are giving out internet routable addresses. This is in California. It's probably not too different anywhere else.
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
    - Samuel Johnson

  6. #6
    Korp: Well Montreal has a place called "Cité du Multimedia" in which I suppose it'd work, but downtown I don't know... I'll have to borrow a card and try it out I guess

  7. #7
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    While at a security seminar here, a person did a scan within the hotel area outside of our ballroom and found thirteen responding networks which lent themselves to further evaluation.
    So far wap is crap.
    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.

  8. #8
    Now, RFC Compliant! Noia's Avatar
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    I like pringels, yet another reason to buy loads of them..... Tanx....
    With all the subtlety of an artillery barrage / Follow blindly, for the true path is sketchy at best. .:Bring OS X to x86!:.
    Og ingen kan minnast dei linne drag i dronningas andlet den fagre dag Då landet her kvilte i heilag fred og alle hadde kjærleik å elske med.

  9. #9
    Priapistic Monk KorpDeath's Avatar
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    Originally posted here by gold eagle
    While at a security seminar here, a person did a scan within the hotel area outside of our ballroom and found thirteen responding networks which lent themselves to further evaluation.
    So far wap is crap.
    If you use MAC rules and a VPN it's not so much crap. All you do is not allow any card to connect. Only allow those MAC addresses to cards which you have given out and use a good VPN product with a good personal firewall. Then you should have no worries unless someone loses their wireless card and doesn't tell you.

    WEP is worthless, although I enable it just to make a lil' harder. Do remenber to set your own keys, don't use the defasult ones.
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
    - Samuel Johnson

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