Wireless network (WEP security)

[Kareem Shehata]

WEP is useless.  I know people who have worked on either breaking it, or
securing 802.11 using better techniques.  While the first group of people
have had a great deal of success, the later have yet to get something
widely accepted in hardware.
You're best bet is to use something at a higher level than the
Data-Link-Layer.  Freeswan has a good solution for wireless lan's from
what I've heard.  You can also leave the IP-layer open, and secure the
application layer with SSL or something similar.
Good luck!

Kareem


Gardner Bell said:
> I've been considering moving to a wireless network system but after
> many articles I have read is it really worth it?  One such article I
> read was on the WEP algorithm and numerous flaws found by the analysts,
> such as a
> dictionary-building attacks, active attack to inject new traffic from
> unauthorized mobile stations, etc. How easily could a
> hacker pull off this kind of attack on an 802.11 network?
> The initialization vector in WEP I have read is only 24-bit and is sent
> in the clear-text part of a message, with only a small amount of
> initialization vectors how often would the same key-stream be used on a
> rather small home network?  A busy access point, which constantly sends
> 1500 byte packets at 11Mbps, will exhaust the space of IVs after
> 1500*8/(11*10^6)*2^24 = ~18000 seconds, or 5 hours.  Would the time
> increase or decrease using wireless with Roger's or does it all depend
> on how much traffic my machines are sending? What measures have others
> here taken to secure their wireless networks if any of you have them
> and what specific hardware would you recommend?  Any other info that
> you could provide would be greatly beneficial.
>
> thanks
> --
> Gardner Bell - personal site www.gamecraze.net
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