Snooker WPA secrets with this Wi-Fi tool Crypto geek George Chatzisofroniou has published a WiFi social engineering tool used to steal credentials and credit cards from users of secure wireless networks. The administrator at the University of Greece developed the WiFiPhisher tool which sought out and then replicated WPA-protected networks, sans password. The tool, …
As with all security attack tools it is designed to increase awareness of the issue. If he had simply sold it to the feds \ NASA \ other corrupt power hungry organisations then he would be doing the community a disservice. We can now educate our users.+1 for wifi pineapple and SSL strip and other man in the middle attacks.
I'm all for increasing awareness, but publicly releasing a tool goes a bit beyond this.
As you say, 'We can now educate our users'. But what about the vast majority of people who wouldn't even understand this topic and who don't have a helpful tech bod to guide them? They are now even more vulnerable.
No. They're not even more vulnerable - they're just as vulnerable as they've always been.
These tools have always been available to "insiders", and can just as easily be created by anyone motivated enough.
But why should only the "bad guys" have these tools? Why can't us white-hats use these same tools, to ensure our systems aren't vulnerable to them?
If you're so concerned about non-technical people not understanding the problem and running insecure kit then you should bark at the vendors who they're throwing money at to make secure equipment and employ a decent (and long term) upgrade process.
they're just as vulnerable as they've always been
I don't know about that - the tool didn't exist until he created it and published it, thereby providing a new means for attacks to be launched.
why should only the "bad guys" have these tools
Good point, but it seems to me that creating and publishing the tool has just given a leg-up to a whole host of bad guys who would otherwise not have had the skill to create it. I don't think the benefit from good guys having it really makes up for that.
On the last point about non-technical people running insecure kit - my understanding of this particular tool is that it attacks properly configured access points and then spoofs innocent people, regardless of the level of security of their kit.
If he had simply sold it to the feds \ NASA \ other corrupt power hungry organisations then he would be doing the community a disservice.
Unless we're trying to hack the aliens' WiFi, it seems highly unlikely that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would ever need something like this.
And I'm sure the National Security Agency *already* knows your WPA PSK.
Isn't the far easier solution to actually password protect the 'new' access point and then log the password thats entered by the user? Them thinking it's their own access point, they will just re enter their real one. Why bother with the fake web page nonsense that makes it look very suspect.
There is a big barrier to this working and that is that most users have no idea what their password is to login to the router. Indeed, most people wouldn't even that was a possibility ("What's my 'wifi router password'? Is that the same as my wifi password? I think I have that written down on a bit of paper somewhere...").
Everyone calm down this type of attack has long long been going on, the only thing new this tool does is automates the part of grabbing a few details for the existing router, considering its generic approach your able to whip up something that looks more beliveable and hence more likely to actually fool someone in a very short time... This tool basically fills a void that doesnt exist, if someone falls for this they would just a be fooled by a generic script (enter wifi password page).
Anyone intrested google "wifi pinapple" for something thats easy and small to deploy if you dont want sit around a target (test area cough) running kali with a laptop.
MDK them all, all you whiffys belong to meeeeee.
"I don't know about that - the tool didn't exist until he created it and published it, thereby providing a new means for attacks to be launched."
Yes it did exist. Deauth attacks have been around for a long time, software to run rogue access points has been around for a long time, and of course software to sniff or mangle the traffic on said AP has also been around a long time. To me, the fact that you didn't know this even existed and now know it does indicates this has done it's job, making people aware of the potential problem.
I don't think it'd work on my parents! If they got that page asking for the WPA password, my mom'd be like "Oh, hell, I put that password in like a year ago. I wrote it down on a note in the drawer somewhere, where'd that go.... oh, never mind, I'll just go do something else." 8-)
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