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A Look at the Linksys WRT150N Wireless-N Router security features |
The Linksys Wireless-N router has a number of security features. The security features include: WEP, PSK Personal (WPA), and PSK Personal (WPA2). In this article, I will explain characteristics of WEP. The explanation will not be highly technical but more practical for everyday decisions.
WEP is the oldest security encryption feature of the home router. WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. WEP has a serious flaw. It is possible to perform the attack with a personal computer, off-the-shelf hardware and freely available software such as aircrack-ng and crack any WEP key in one minute or less. One might say that a solution to the problem would be to use higher bit keys. However, it is possible to recover a 104 bit WEP key with a 50% probability using just 40,000 captured packets. For 60,000 available data packets, the success rate is 80% and a 95% success rate for 85,000 data packets. Using active techniques like "deauth" and "ARP re-injection", 40,000 packets can be captured in less than one minute under good condition. The actual computation takes about 3 seconds and 3 MB main memory on a Pentium-M 1.7 GHz and can additionally be optimized for devices with slower CPUs. The same attack can be used for 40 bit keys too with an even higher success probability.
In 2005, a group from the FBI demonstrated a crack of a WEP-protected network in 3 minutes using tools that are available to the public.
Fortunately there is a solution to the WEP vulnerabilities. The PSK technologies in the form of WPA and WPA2 provide a much more secure alternative.
Article source http://w4rum.com/2256.t
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| [By Kimber Fulcher] [05/May/07] |
