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WPA Wi-Fi Encryption Is Partially Cracked
Though only partially....
Given that WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) can be compromised in a matter of minutes, many people now use WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)on their wireless routers. But security researchers now say they've developed a way to partially crack WPA, according to InfoWorld. Researchers have found a way to break the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key used by WPA in a matter of twelve to fifteen minutes. They have not yet managed to crack the encryption keys used to secure data that goes from the PC to the router.
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Sacurtis
join:2004-02-25
Niceville, FL

Sacurtis

Member

WPA Crack

So this basically means that someone can't sniff my data but they can get on my network....Correct?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: WPA Crack

said by Sacurtis:

So this basically means that someone can't sniff my data but they can get on my network....Correct?
Not exactly. They can see the data that is going TO the PC from the wireless router. They just can't see the data flowing FROM the PC back thru the router to the web host.

danza
Premium Member
join:2002-08-23

danza to Sacurtis

Premium Member

to Sacurtis
Seems like it.

They didn't mention AES at all in the article though.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: WPA Crack

said by danza:

Seems like it.

They didn't mention AES at all in the article though.
Read comments to the news item from PCWorld:
»www.pcworld.com/article/153396/

A thread in the Security forum discusses this:
»New method found to crack WPA - but not WPA2
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to Sacurtis

Premium Member

to Sacurtis
so they cracked it but it is still more secure then WEP. id still compair WPA-TKIP to a deadbolt on your door and no windows in reach of ground level. someone can get in but they have to work at it.

WPA2-AES is more like a motion sensing machinegun on the roof.

QuakeFrag
Premium Member
join:2003-06-13
NH

QuakeFrag

Premium Member

Re: WPA Crack

What is no wireless then (only a hardwired lan)? :-P
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn

Member

Re: WPA Crack

said by QuakeFrag:

What is no wireless then (only a hardwired lan)? :-P
Smart ?

fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium Member
join:2001-05-25
Limbo

1 edit

3 recommendations

fireflier to QuakeFrag

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to QuakeFrag
said by QuakeFrag:

What is no wireless then (only a hardwired lan)? :-P
Pissed off midget with a flamethrower.

Midget
@bellsouth.net

Midget

Anon

Re: WPA Crack

said by fireflier:

said by QuakeFrag:

What is no wireless then (only a hardwired lan)? :-P
Pissed off midget with a flamethrower.
LOL!

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena to QuakeFrag

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to QuakeFrag
said by QuakeFrag:

What is no wireless then (only a hardwired lan)? :-P
Ford Knox, surrounded by a mile-wide moat, filled with mines and other unpleasantries.

GOtomtomGO
@comcast.net

GOtomtomGO

Anon

Re: WPA Crack

then i have mines.. and they're GREAT!!
TheMG
Premium Member
join:2007-09-04
Canada
MikroTik RB450G
Cisco DPC3008
Cisco SPA112

1 edit

TheMG to Kearnstd

Premium Member

to Kearnstd
said by Kearnstd:

id still compair WPA-TKIP to a deadbolt on your door and no windows in reach of ground level.
Well, I'm not sure if I'd compare it to a deadbolt. I can pick the lock on a standard deadbolt in just a couple minutes using makeshift tools. I'm no locksmith either.

And this WPA cracking isn't quite available to the masses either, unlike WEP cracking.

Unless of course the key is a weak one, in which case it can be brute forced within a reasonable time frame. Good luck brute forcing a WPA key of 63 random characters (I think that's what the max is).

BIGMIKE
Q
Premium Member
join:2002-06-07
Gainesville, FL

BIGMIKE to Sacurtis

Premium Member

to Sacurtis
Hacking Wireless Network is old news

Apr 05, 2005
Feds Hack Wireless Network in 3 Minutes
»hardware.slashdot.org/ar ··· from=rss

Turbo-charged wireless hacks threaten networks

Graphics cards encryption skulduggery

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Enterprise Security, 10th October 2008 12:25 GMT

»www.theregister.co.uk/20 ··· hacking/

The latest graphics cards have been used to break Wi-Fi encryption far quicker than was previously possible. Some security consultants are already suggesting the development blows Wi-Fi security out of the water and that corporations ought to apply tighter VPN controls, or abandon wireless networks altogether, in response

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: WPA Crack

Your first example is about cracking WEP which is old news. This article is talking about cracking WPA, so they are not related.

You second example is not really cracking the WPA key, it's just a faster brute force attack.
cooperaaaron
join:2004-04-10
Joliet, IL

cooperaaaron to BIGMIKE

Member

to BIGMIKE
Let's say I had a computer with two graphics cards, why can't someone come up with a way to use one of the graphics cards ( or some card that could be installed in a slot ) when it is idle or lightly used, to encrypt data ?

Stefania
Jezu Chryste, Kubi
Premium Member
join:2003-03-17
Chicago, IL

Stefania

Premium Member

Re: WPA Crack

Apple is doing something very similar to what you describe, or at least they're making it possible.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL

keyboard5684
Sam
join:2001-08-01
Pittsburgh, PA

keyboard5684

Member

Re: WPA Crack

This is the same concept as a Cisco card that is used, an AIM module, which offloads the encryption onto that processor to take away from the main CPU.

Long ago, this is old technology, and can certainly be applied to wireless networks.

If you are that paranoid then simply create a VPN, dial into the VPN over the encrypted wireless access point, and then they would have to break the wireless and the extremely complex encryption with 3DES and other complex technologies long developed.

Geez...

scrummie02
Bentley
Premium Member
join:2004-04-16
Arlington, VA

scrummie02 to Stefania

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to Stefania
soekris also has a card.
»www.soekris.com/vpn1401.htm
It's been out for quite a while. ..

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
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·Republic Wireless
·Hollis Hosting

tschmidt to cooperaaaron

MVM

to cooperaaaron
said by cooperaaaron:

some card that could be installed in a slot ) when it is idle or lightly used, to encrypt data ?
The problem is not encryption it is key management. AES is very secure.

Key management is is the weak point of most privacy schemes. The Enigma machines used by Germany during WWII were quite good. It was the way Germans created the daily key that allowed Alan Turing to crack the codes. If Germans used better keys and prefixed messages with random data (like the Allies did) most likely even the brilliant Turning would have been stymied.

/tom

Rabbit7766
@isnet.net

Rabbit7766 to BIGMIKE

Anon

to BIGMIKE
err...thats WEP hacking in 2005. this is WPA cracking, slighty more complex, but still easy to do.

QuakeFrag
Premium Member
join:2003-06-13
NH

QuakeFrag

Premium Member

WPA2

Soon enough WPA will be the new WEP. Thank goodness for another change of style, AES. Is there any word on a WPA3 (or whatever the next gen might be).

tmh
@qwest.net

tmh

Anon

Not news

TKIP has its foundations in WEP. The main improvement being that a new key was generated every X minutes. It looks like someone's figured out a faster way to break WEP?

True?

Looks like AES is still secure.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

2 recommendations

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Not news

said by tmh :

TKIP has its foundations in WEP. The main improvement being that a new key was generated every X minutes. It looks like someone's figured out a faster way to break WEP?

True?

Looks like AES is still secure.
Even if you are using WPA/TKIP, you can still better your odds by changing the "Key Renewal interval" in the wireless router from the usually default 3600 secs(60 mins) down to say 600 secs(10 mins). That should bring it under the time needed to crack the key. By the time they crack the key, it would already be changed.

tmh
@qwest.net

1 recommendation

tmh

Anon

Re: Not news

said by FFH5:

Even if you are using WPA/TKIP, you can still better your odds by changing the "Key Renewal interval" in the wireless router from the usually default 3600 secs(60 mins) down to say 600 secs(10 mins). That should bring it under the time needed to crack the key. By the time they crack the key, it would already be changed.
Tis funny you mentioned that. 5 years ago when I was running TKIP routers, I switched the key interval to 300 seconds. It wasn't adversely performance, so I figured "why not?".

tmh

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
·Consolidated Com..
·Republic Wireless
·Hollis Hosting

tschmidt to FFH5

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to FFH5
said by FFH5:

By the time they crack the key, it would already be changed.
That does not address the problem. Since previous transmissions can be recorded it does not matter (within reason) how long it takes the attacker to crack encryption. Once cracked plain text is readable. Whatever was communicated is now known to the attacker.

/tom

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Not news

said by tschmidt:
said by FFH5:

By the time they crack the key, it would already be changed.
That does not address the problem. Since previous transmissions can be recorded it does not matter (within reason) how long it takes the attacker to crack encryption. Once cracked plain text is readable. Whatever was communicated is now known to the attacker.

/tom
It does matter, because the data that has to be collected in order to successfully decrypt it exceeds a 12 to 15 min collection timeframe. If the key changes BEFORE they can collect 12 to 15 mins worth of data, then the decryption process won't succeed. At least that is how I understand the process from several different writeups.

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
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·Consolidated Com..
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·Hollis Hosting

tschmidt

MVM

Re: Not news

said by FFH5:

If the key changes BEFORE they can collect 12 to 15 mins worth of data, then the decryption process won't succeed. At least that is how I understand the process from several different writeups.
I am not a cryptanalysis nor do I play one on TV. My understanding is they spoof system into sending a big chunk of data, then it only takes 12-15 minutes to extract the key. If key is changed more often recovered key cannot be used to actively communicate but will be able to convert messages to plain text.

As an aside WPA was always considered an interim scheme until WPA2 could be officially approved. This is an interesting, but not devastating, attack as I assume most sites are using WPA2 to replace WEP.

/tom

ieolus
Support The Clecs
join:2001-06-19
Danbury, CT

ieolus

Member

Re: Not news

You guys should stay at a Holiday Inn Express tonight and then come back here to finish the discussion tomorrow.

ftthz
If love can kill hate can also save
join:2005-10-17

ftthz

Member

.

intersting... means people have to upgrade to wpa2

scooby
Premium Member
join:2001-05-01
Schaumburg, IL

scooby

Premium Member

Everything is crackable...

Like I have said for years now. If it is human made, a human can crack it. It is just a matter of time.

Obviously the amount of time depends on the level of interest.

R.I.P. CSS - 1999
R.I.P. WEP - 2001
R.I.P. AACS - 2007
R.I.P. BD+ - 2008

AACS and BD+ cracked for sure? Who knows but there are lots of programs out there to let you get around it. That is close enough in my book.

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH

tschmidt

MVM

Re: Everything is crackable...

While what you say is true there is a world of difference between trying to protect mass produced media (impossible) and protecting messages between two parties (hard).

/tom
jca2050
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
Dallas, TX

jca2050

Premium Member

WPA

WPA is still very secure if you have a complicated and long pass code. If you make your pass code something like ">SADFJL#()@!)OFKasfjksF2390SATf923()!%#%>", that's pretty much a guarantee that no one will crack it unless they have rainbow tables and a lot of time on their hands.

WPA has been crackable for a long time, it just requires you to deauth a client, capture the 4-way handshake when they reconnect and crack it with aircrack. If the pass code is something easy like "password" then you can run a standard dictionary attack on it and crack it in a matter of minutes. Although this method only works on WPA-PSK (pre-shared key) if I recall correctly, but just about every WPA protected AP I've seen uses WPA-PSK.

••••••••
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000

Member

WPA2 is fine.

I use WPA2-AES with a randomly generated longass password. I figure it'll be a few more years for someone to crack that.

I suppose though, because cpu/power continutes to increase, the ease of brute force attacks gets easier. I guess they should start working on a WPA3.

•••
utahluge
join:2004-10-14
Draper, UT

1 edit

utahluge

Member

TKIP+AES

My DD-WRT supports "TKIP+AES". Does the essentially double my protection? I don't really know what that means.

Edit: Just found out. "TKIP+AES" is there for mixed environments. It will try AES first and if your node doesn't support it, it will try TKIP.
jimmytjams
Premium Member
join:2006-12-23
Buffalo, NY

jimmytjams

Premium Member

IF you use MAC Address Filtering what is the effect?

If you enable Enable MAC Address Filtering on a Westell verizon wireless router D90-327W15-06. Will this add enough protection in addition to a medium strenght WPA key to keep from being hacked into?

Thanks,

Joey

Dipsomaniac
Oh My, Yes.
join:2001-12-12
Toronto, ON

1 recommendation

Dipsomaniac

Member

Re: IF you use MAC Address Filtering what is the effect?

MAC address filtering adds almost nothing in the way of security if someone is actually interested in getting into your network. Spoofing a MAC address is trivial.

DataRiker
Premium Member
join:2002-05-19
00000

4 edits

DataRiker

Premium Member

Almost a crack

Users using long random passwords have no reason to switch to AES yet.

These type of articles are nothing but FUD. The actual cipher is not broken, but rather a faster way of testing likely keys was found, and given a complex key this is inconsequential.

I think many people here to not realize that even the WEP encryption scheme which was BADLY flawed could offer good protection with the correct key.

with the maximum length key at random using all possible characters it took an ENORMOUS amount of weak IV's. Not the 1 million or so most web example showed with weak passwords but more like 20+ million weak IV's with a long random password, which was very unlikely on all but a few routers (new firmware made this very hard to reach by "packet injection")

In case anyone was wondering the statistical attack time went down as the weak iv count went up.

It would take an intruder months to collect that many weak IV's (depending on your browsing habits)

kyler13
Is your fiber grounded?
join:2006-12-12
Annapolis, MD

kyler13

Member

Ultimate WPA security

The Actiontec router I have is an absolute bear when it comes to trying to initiate a connection with WPA (current firmware issue). It doesn't want to auto-connect and pretty much never will acknowledge the handshake on the first try, despite the key being correct. I have to sit here and refresh my connections window sometimes a couple dozen times before the handshake works and the connection is made. LOL, that little "feature" probably makes my WPA connection nearly bullet-proof.
I pos rep
join:2008-08-22

1 edit

I pos rep

Member

Not really any danger to users with some knowledge

This applies only to WPA to begin with. Who still uses that in 2008? Even my router with WPA2 AES is older than I can remember(at least a couple of years).

WPA with good long random keys should take quit a while before they even become worth the effort. Anyone standing outside my house in a car for a week is likely to be considered suspicious.

QuakeFrag
Premium Member
join:2003-06-13
NH

QuakeFrag

Premium Member

Re: Not really any danger to users with some knowledge

Not every user has knowledge, which is inevitable. Currently I live in an apartment complex, and I can see half a dozen routers open. The typical user doesn't configure a router, let alone know the difference between WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP, AES. So I'm sure there are plenty of people out there using WPA.

Titus
Mr Gradenko
join:2004-06-26

Titus to I pos rep

Member

to I pos rep
said by I pos rep:

This applies only to WPA to begin with. Who still uses that in 2008?
My Linksys wireless print server.
--
wispalord
join:2007-09-20
Farmington, MO

wispalord

Member

well...

hence why you disable SSID, and use mac adress authenication on top of everything else.. and it helps, and maybe disable dhcp and use a oddball numbering structure.
beaups
join:2003-08-11
Hilliard, OH

beaups

Member

Re: well...

ssid and mac filtering is a joke. disabling dhcp is just a mild additional hassle.

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
·Consolidated Com..
·Republic Wireless
·Hollis Hosting

tschmidt

MVM

Link from Slashdot

Here is more background on the attack:
»arstechnica.com/articles ··· cked.ars

Slashdot link:
»it.slashdot.org/it/08/11 ··· 46.shtml

/tom

testing123
@comcast.net

testing123

Anon

Mac spoofing

If you're not on the network yet, how would you know which mac to spoof?

ctceo
Premium Member
join:2001-04-26
South Bend, IN

ctceo

Premium Member

No Suprise

You find a Lock, I'll get a pick. TKIP is no exception.

With near-on-the-fly decryption, government back-doors, decryption using more than one CPU, Other devices & constant eavsdropping/espionage/spying. Encryption has all but become a joke in most cases.

With the right hardware in place and know how, you can speed up that decryption time from 12 to 15 minutes to seconds. But in most cases where it is relevant, NotF Decryption has you beat anyway.