Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: New attack cracks common Wi-Fi encryption in a minute

  1. #1
    Head Honcho Administrator Reverend's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    England
    Posts
    14,737

    New attack cracks common Wi-Fi encryption in a minute

    Computer scientists in Japan say they've developed a way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers in about one minute.

    The attack gives hackers a way to read encrypted traffic sent between computers and certain types of routers that use the WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption system. The attack was developed by Toshihiro Ohigashi of Hiroshima University and Masakatu Morii of Kobe University, who plan to discuss further details at a technical conference set for Sept. 25 in Hiroshima.

    Last November, security researchers first showed how WPA could be broken, but the Japanese researchers have taken the attack to a new level, according to Dragos Ruiu, organizer of the PacSec security conference where the first WPA hack was demonstrated. "They took this stuff which was fairly theoretical and they've made it much more practical," he said.

    The Japanese researchers discuss their attack in a paper presented at the Joint Workshop on Information Security, held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan earlier this month.

    The earlier attack, developed by researchers Martin Beck and Erik Tews, worked on a smaller range of WPA devices and took between 12 and 15 minutes to work. Both attacks work only on WPA systems that use the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) algorithm. They do not work on newer WPA 2 devices or on WPA systems that use the stronger Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm.

    Full story: Computerworld

    =========== Please Read The Forum Rules ===========

  2. #2
    Old and Cranky Super Moderator rik's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Watching Your every move...
    Posts
    4,303
    Frikkin wonderful

  3. #3
    Security Intelligence TZ Veteran cash_site's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Software Paradise
    Posts
    3,385
    War driving just got more interesting... Time to upgrade wifi-router-modem

    --- 0wN3D by 3gG ---

  4. #4
    Gold Member harrytb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    home
    Posts
    412
    i've just got a new router and i'm using WPA-PSK + WPA2-PSK.

    not sure how secure it is but,it's the best on the available list.

    ill be back soon,
    just watching some paint dry.

  5. #5
    Security Intelligence TZ Veteran cash_site's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Software Paradise
    Posts
    3,385
    I hear you Harry... I mean we can only put as much security as the devices allow, and for compatibility even less some times... If we all get paranoid, we can start doing MAC filtering, or like my work, put blue cables in clear pipes with air-gap sensors for wire-tapping!

    It's probably prudent to turn off your wireless while not using it... I know my router can disable wireless without resetting the device (re-sync or pppoe etc).

    --- 0wN3D by 3gG ---

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •