Wifi intrusion

subbass · 30 Mar 2011 at 23:23

I was just wondering if someone got into your wifi network, can they freely browse your files on your computer or will you have to share the files/folders for that to happen?

cheechm · 30 Mar 2011 at 23:25

Depends how the sharing is set up on your computer. By default, usually nothing.

tntcoder · 30 Mar 2011 at 23:30

They would have to be shared in one way or another. Being attached to a wifi network provides a direct route to speak to your PC, so an attacker could then look for a way into your box but wouldn't have it by default.

23JMZ07 · 31 Mar 2011 at 00:41

As above,

no one should be able to get into your wireless network anyway,
Security measures are immense now.

DragonWoLf · 31 Mar 2011 at 00:46

23JMZ07 said:
As above,

no one should be able to get into your wireless network anyway,
Security measures are immense now.

Not really though is it? Enough software avail specially with certain Linux stuff to crack wifi encryption, sure it takes time but if one has a nosey neighbour who's a geek well then..

Semple · 31 Mar 2011 at 00:50

DragonWoLf said:
Not really though is it? Enough software avail specially with certain Linux stuff to crack wifi encryption, sure it takes time but if one has a nosey neighbour who's a geek well then..

As above

I do a computer security course at uni and we've been introduced to a number of tools that can be used to break encryption.

postmanfw · 31 Mar 2011 at 01:07

wep is broken easily enough (if enough packets grabbed) but i thought wpa with a long random password could only be hacked by brute force method if relevant packet is grabbed?

Or have things changed now?

tntcoder · 31 Mar 2011 at 07:38

postmanfw said:
wep is broken easily enough (if enough packets grabbed) but i thought wpa with a long random password could only be hacked by brute force method if relevant packet is grabbed?

Or have things changed now?

Correct, well WPA2 with a strong password is fine rather than just WPA which now has some weaknesses.

Ev0 · 31 Mar 2011 at 10:00

tntcoder said:
Correct, well WPA2 with a strong password is fine rather than just WPA which now has some weaknesses.

This, good luck at this point in time trying to crack a WPA2 network with a strong key, you might be there a while.

IIRC WPA2 (which uses CCMP, which uses the AES algorithm, for encryption) itself has not yet been (publicly!) cracked so you'll only get in by brute forcing, which is why a strong key is important.

The 'hole 196' vulnerability cannot really be included as for that to work you already need to be authorised and connected on the same wireless network as the traffic you are trying to sniff. If someone has made it onto your network then you've already lost

KIA · 31 Mar 2011 at 14:03

Ignore #5 and #6.

WPA2 + a decent key.

https://www.grc.com/ppp.htm

Skidilliplop · 31 Mar 2011 at 14:08

Agreed decent WPA2 setup.

If they can break your encryption, hacking their way into windows will be a walk in the park in comparison. focus your efforts on making sure they can't get into the network in the first place

23JMZ07 · 31 Mar 2011 at 15:03

DragonWoLf said:
Not really though is it? Enough software avail specially with certain Linux stuff to crack wifi encryption, sure it takes time but if one has a nosey neighbour who's a geek well then..

Semple said:
As above

I do a computer security course at uni and we've been introduced to a number of tools that can be used to break encryption.

ROFL

WPA2 AES with a decent length passkey

I invite you to come round mine and sit for as long as you like trying to break it.

KIA · 31 Mar 2011 at 20:23

23JMZ07 said:
ROFL

I ROFL'd too after I read the "security course" bit.

To be fair he would have a point if he had mentioned WEP. It's too easy to scare new users with blanket statements like "WiFi security is useless".

Ev0 · 31 Mar 2011 at 23:03

Sadly a lot of people are mis-informed on subjects such as this.

They fire up backtrack, watch a youtube video on how to crack WEP and suddenly they are security experts

PistolPete · 1 Apr 2011 at 11:15

Didn't someone recently brute force WPA2 in a short time about 15 minsusing Amazon EC2 CPU time bought for a few dollars???

.....ah - found the story and it was WPA.

I still love this story:
http://www.ex-parrot.com/pete/upside-down-ternet.html

Once I get a bit of time I might do the same thing

RubinRemus · 1 Apr 2011 at 14:45

I thought the OP was asking that, assuming once someone had got onto the network...........could they feely browse PC contents?
No-one's mentioned the $admin share? This has been disabled on Win7, iirc, but the many XP users still need to disable it themselves.
The thing you need to consider, is that if someone wishes to do so, once on the network, there are myriad tools available to dump a command prompt of connected PC's at their disposal. They aren't going to be relying on "Network Neighbourhood" to display just designated shared folders.
So, the answer really, is yes.

But, I think the point most people are trying to make is that security is subjective.
The level of security required is related to what you're trying to protect.
Most "skiddies" are looking for easy pickings (open, WEP, etc) to "play" with, to show their prowess

Home users are perfectly safe behind WPA/WPA2. In all honesty, what do you have that is worth someone spending more than 10-20mins getting at? free wifi? Whooo! They have that at McD's don't they?

pumaz · 1 Apr 2011 at 15:24

23JMZ07 said:
ROFL

WPA2 AES with a decent length passkey

I invite you to come round mine and sit for as long as you like trying to break it.

+1

KIA · 1 Apr 2011 at 19:11

RubinRemus said:
I thought the OP was asking that, No-one's mentioned the $admin share? This has been disabled on Win7, iirc,

It's still there. Obviously the skiddie will need credentials to auth.