Persuasion for security

[@tt!tud3]

Why is mac filtering useless in the standard home or student hostel enviroment? [/B]

greetings MURACU...

Because just about every network device driver these days has a box in Device Manager where you can set the MAC address the card uses. All you need is one frame sniffed from a wireless network to get a valid MAC address, then you can use that and you're in.

[JonnyFrond]

Disabling broadcasting doesn't hide you from anyone who's driving around looking for networks, but it does make you easier to hijack (your clients will prefer an AP which is broadcasting the SSID). MAC filtering is pretty useless from a security perspective too.

Could you elaborate a little please, as my flatmate has done just this to our network and claims it is as secure as can be. I would love to prove him wrong just to watch the veins in his forehead pop out a little bit.

And how is it easier to hijack, I notice that cain and able picks up the network, but it can't give the name of it.


Frooty Frondilidicious

[SirDice]

The SSID will pop up as soon as a client starts to communicate with the AP.. It's right there in the communication between the client and the AP.. Same goes for the MAC address.. Most modern NICs will allow you to change the assigned MAC.. So you change your MAC to one you've picked up during a scan and hey presto....

Oh.. And to elaborate on the hijack issue... WinXP (probably others too) seems to remember the SSID of the last AP it connected to. When it isn't connected it'll keep calling for that same SSID.. I can pick up these probes, read the SSID your client is broadcasting, configure my AP to use that SSID and you are suddenly connected to my AP