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Wireless networks are accessible to anyone within the router’s transmission radius. This makes them vulnerable to attacks. Hotspots are available in public places such as airports, restaurants, parks, etc.
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WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup. It allows you connect to your wireless router faster and easier. WPS only works on wireless devices that support WPA Personal or WPA2 Personal. It doesn’t work on devices that use WEP. How To Use WPS Button? Here is where WPS button located. Typically, if you want to connect a device to a wireless network. I feel that contrary to popular belief, DISH Network is a decent place to work. The environment is collaborative. I did not see too much politics. People are fairly friendly and easy to work with. Pushing through change is a bit of a challenge as some people are set in their ways. Pace of change is slow.
In this tutorial, we will introduce you to common techniques used to exploit weaknesses in wireless network security implementations. We will also look at some of the countermeasures you can put in place to protect against such attacks.
Topics covered in this tutorialWhat is a wireless network?
A wireless network is a network that uses radio waves to link computers and other devices together. The implementation is done at the Layer 1 (physical layer) of the OSI model.
How to access a wireless network?
You will need a wireless network enabled device such as a laptop, tablet, smartphones, etc. You will also need to be within the transmission radius of a wireless network access point. Most devices (if the wireless network option is turned on) will provide you with a list of available networks. If the network is not password protected, then you just have to click on connect. If it is password protected, then you will need the password to gain access.
Wireless Network Authentication
Since the network is easily accessible to everyone with a wireless network enabled device, most networks are password protected. Let’s look at some of the most commonly used authentication techniques.
WEP
WEP is the acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy. It was developed for IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards. Its goal was to provide the privacy equivalent to that provided by wired networks. WEP works by encrypting the data been transmitted over the network to keep it safe from eavesdropping.
WEP Authentication
Open System Authentication (OSA) – this methods grants access to station authentication requested based on the configured access policy.
Shared Key Authentication (SKA) – This method sends to an encrypted challenge to the station requesting access. The station encrypts the challenge with its key then responds. If the encrypted challenge matches the AP value, then access is granted.
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WEP Weakness
WEP has significant design flaws and vulnerabilities.
Because of these security flaws, WEP has been deprecated in favor of WPA
WPA![]()
WPA is the acronym for Wi-Fi Protected Access. It is a security protocol developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance in response to the weaknesses found in WEP. It is used to encrypt data on 802.11 WLANs. It uses higher Initial Values 48 bits instead of the 24 bits that WEP uses. It uses temporal keys to encrypt packets.
WPA Weaknesses
How to Crack Wireless Networks
WEP cracking
Cracking is the process of exploiting security weaknesses in wireless networks and gaining unauthorized access. WEP cracking refers to exploits on networks that use WEP to implement security controls. There are basically two types of cracks namely;
WEP Cracking Tools
WPA Cracking
WPA uses a 256 pre-shared key or passphrase for authentications. Short passphrases are vulnerable to dictionary attacks and other attacks that can be used to crack passwords. The following tools can be used to crack WPA keys.
General Attack types
Cracking Wireless network WEP/WPA keys
It is possible to crack the WEP/WPA keys used to gain access to a wireless network. Doing so requires software and hardware resources, and patience. The success of such attacks can also depend on how active and inactive the users of the target network are.
We will provide you with basic information that can help you get started. Backtrack is a Linux-based security operating system. It is developed on top of Ubuntu. Backtrack comes with a number of security tools. Backtrack can be used to gather information, assess vulnerabilities and perform exploits among other things.
Some of the popular tools that backtrack has includes;
Cracking wireless network keys requires patience and resources mentioned above. At a minimum, you will need the following tools
A wireless network adapter with the capability to inject packets (Hardware)
How to Secure wireless networks
In minimizing wireless network attacks; an organization can adopt the following policies
Hacking Activity: Crack Wireless Password
In this practical scenario, we are going touse Cain and Abel to decode the stored wireless network passwords in Windows. We will also provide useful information that can be used to crack the WEP and WPA keys of wireless networks.
Decoding Wireless network passwords stored in Windows
Summary
Ah!A little alarm just went off in my head.If you know the phone number that the 6 digit password is being sent to, you can use social engineering to trick the owner of the account into giving you the 6 digit code.Example:'Crap! I set the wrong phone number for my Facebook and now I can't access it without my security code. Did it get sent to you?'
No need for infecting someone's phone or searching endless possibilities to brute force the code, human stupidity is the key to hacking!(I might just write another tutorial).
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March 2023
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