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WEP & RC4 - the final fantasy

announcement
By vortex, Section News
Posted on Thu Aug 16th, 2001 at 10:50:15 GMT

The wicked WEP of the WLAN is dead. Long live VPNs ...

The WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) crypto protocol of 802.11b utilises the RC4 cryptographic algorithm has been shown to hold serious weaknesses that just shine out in the way its used in WEP. The RC4 weaknesses outlined in a paper co-authored by Adi Shamir (the S in RSA) can be exploited by sniffing a seriously large amount of data that can be passively analysed. Combine that with previously known WEP flaws and WEP can be easily cracked.

Some attendants at HAL2001 - Hackers at Large in the Netherlands last week claimed that WEP sploit source should be out and about within a week. Passive key cracks should take from 15 minutes to 4 hours.

Update [2001-8-19 18:1:0 by vortex]: OK. It's out. Airsnort is a Linux wireless sniffer that can crack and decrypt WEP encoded packet streams of any key length. At the moment, it only supports 802.11b cards based on the Prism-2 chipset, but support for other cards (including Lucent/Orinoco cards) is likely to be only a matter of time. Currently supported cards include the: Addtron AWP-100, Bromax Freeport, Compaq WL100, D-Link DWL-650, GemTek (Taiwan) WL-211, Linksys WPC11, Samsung SWL2000-N, SMC 2632W, Z-Com XI300, and the Zoom Telephonics ZoomAir 4100.

SSL / TLS / HTTPS also (often by default) use the now-perceived-as-weaker RC4 algorithm. The consensus is that, regardless of key length, RC4 is probably still OK to use in short transactional bursts (such as communicating with a secure web server), but long continual data bursts present a higher likelyhood of data privacy compromise.

The paranoid should remain paranoid and consider switching crypto algorithms for their secure web stuff, but should also survey what all the browsers out there actually support.

.vortex

 

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Related Links
· RC4 weaknesses
· WEP can be easily cracked
· HAL2001 - Hackers at Large
· Airsnort
· More on announcement
· Also by vortex

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WEP & RC4 - the final fantasy | 4 comments (4 topical, editorial, 0 pending)
secure wavelan 4.00 (#1)
by saloxin on Fri Aug 17th, 2001 at 18:41:02 GMT
(User Info)

Some ppl here in Amsterdam are considering ipsec for securing wavelan communications.

http://www.freeswan.org

It now also supports opportunistic encryption.

We are still working on a cheaper version of the antennas, but it seems like we are getting some help from London ;-)

We will make a webpage and post a link when something is working.



 
Re: secure wavelan 4.00 (#2)
by vortex (gro.ria2eerf@xetrov) on Sat Aug 18th, 2001 at 02:59:26 GMT
(User Info) http://www.free2air.org

IPsec is cool. Opportunistic IPsec SA's are fine, but seem to be a bit of a hack. I hope John Gilmore & others can develop DNSsec a little further and get the support of the IETF to further their efforts of standardising ubiquitous strong crypto IP links. It was good to see John again at HAL ...

If you need any help on establishing IPsec in your link, don't hesistate to ask, we may be able to help.

Start an OpenNAP diary, or just email me.

shine,


.vortex


DNSsec none (#3)
by Anonymous Hero on Sat Sep 8th, 2001 at 19:25:57 GMT

that dnssec talk was shite. dnssec _is_ shite. and a mess.

[ Parent ]


DNSsec none (#4)
by vortex (gro.ria2eerf@xetrov) on Mon Sep 10th, 2001 at 17:52:06 GMT
(User Info) http://www.free2air.org

well, missed that talk ...

OK, I'll bite! ;-)

DNSsec in essence, as an idea, concept, drawing on the back of a beer coaster, whatever, is good.

Don't like the TXT key stuff in op IPsec, etc. can you spell kludge?

Strongly authenticated DNS hierachies are a good idea. Why is DNSsec shite & a mess?

Oh, and while we're at it, WTF are you doing about it? ;-]




.vortex
[ Parent ]


 
WEP & RC4 - the final fantasy | 4 comments (4 topical, editorial, 0 pending)
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