Wireless Security Today

jbseven

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Dec 2, 2011
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I stumbled across a handbook while looking to test my routers' security and was shocked at how easy it is to retrieve websites visited and passwords used just by having someone not so trustworthy on the same network.

Is there anything at all that can be done to combat this?
 
Solution
You likely can't fix it with DD-WRT. The key tool to prevent this is DHCPSNOOPING. You can also use private vlans to prevent certain client to client traffic. DD_WRT can do neither of these. This is why companies pay for commercial equipment. dd-wrt can prevent part of the attacks by running 802.1x security but this means you must have a radius server and run enterprise mode.
This is why most commercial equipment has option to prevent the common attacks. Almost all that information that they publish is very outdated and does not work on modern lan equipment.

You get what you pay for pretty much. If you want a $20 8 port gig switch it will just pass traffic and do nothing else. The same is true for what people call "routers". In addition to not having most the advanced protection options these devices are not even true routers.

Still most people do not feel the risk is worth spending the extra money so that is why you have so many inexpensive devices on the market that do little more than the very basic function required.
 
You never said which of many attacks that you were referring too. DD-WRT might fix some of the very simple attacks but most its security is based on not allowing the attacking machine on the network the first place. Once you assume you have given up that first layer of security and now have a machine that needs to function but not abuse protocols not designed to be secure it takes a much more advanced solution.

Pretty much all brands of commercial equipment have lot of features. I know cisco and juniper the best and HP has a number of features. I would suspect Aviya and huawei as well as many others support some of the more common tools like dhcpsnooping to prevent some of the abuse.
 

jbseven

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Dec 2, 2011
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Some of the tools in the handbook were wifikill, athena, cain & abel. I'll have to go through it again tbh as its a lot of 'new' info for me.

Currently, the untrusted pc's connect to a single dd-wrt enabled wrt54g. I doubt that I have set it up properly though as wifikill at the very least still gets through. Not sure how to address this either...

Any advice would be appreciated!

Setup:
Router1>Router2>WRT54G, Router1>Router3.

Router1>192.168.30.1, DHCP on from 192.168.30.10-50, WPS Off, Mac Filter On.
Router2>192.168.30.2, DHCP off
Router3>192.168.30.3 DHCP off
WRT54G>192.168.20.1 DHCP on from 192.168.20.10-20, WPS Off, Mac FilteR On.
 
You likely can't fix it with DD-WRT. The key tool to prevent this is DHCPSNOOPING. You can also use private vlans to prevent certain client to client traffic. DD_WRT can do neither of these. This is why companies pay for commercial equipment. dd-wrt can prevent part of the attacks by running 802.1x security but this means you must have a radius server and run enterprise mode.
 
Solution