From: Paul Guyot (pguyot_at_kallisys.net)
Date: Fri Jan 23 2004 - 04:39:05 PST
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004, Brian wrote:
> If you do not use MAC address filtering, yes. MAC (not Apple Mac, MAC)
> address filtering is a config tab in your wireless router config,
> somewhere. You type in the MAC address of the wireless cards that you
> wish to allow access to the router. The MAC address is the 00:0x:13:
> etc etc ID that is printed on the back of your wireless PC card or
> somewhere on your PCI cards for desktops.
>
> Your router will then only accept traffic from those cards. It's not
> perfect, MAC addresses are spoofable and it's possible for someone who
> wants, to spoof one of your allowed addresses, and then they could use
> your access point just like you can, but it's more work and so many
> people have unsecured home routers, I don't think it's likely someone
> would bother.
It's also some work to crack 128 bits WEP. I think it's even easier to
spoof MAC addresses than cracking 128 bits WEP. Just run Linux and use the
right option for ifconfig to tell the driver to use another MAC address.
Security is just a matter of how much power (or time) is required to crack
it. The rule is to know where the weakest point is and if secrets on the
line are worth a higher security. That's why I wouldn't telnet to a box
but I don't care if some neighbor sees which websites I'm surfing on
(actually, I would pity them if they haven't anything better to do).
Paul
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