Benefits of hiding your SSID: None
by Volker Weber
Comments
have you chosen hidden wlan?
normaly you have to enter the SSID then, so it's not plain open to everyone. :-(
First of all you know there is a WLAN. Then you sniff for it. And then you have the SSID.
Could it be that the admin in question just named his WLAN "Hidden"? Then it could have been the same guy who ran a WLAN named "Volldepp" in Munich recently.
Konstantin, iirc there are some device that will display "hidden" WLANs like that. Finding a hidden WLAN is in fact quite easy. You just have to look for packets addressed to an AP/Router you do not see. That's because the name of the receiving AP/Router is always contained in the packet in clear text. And that's exactly why it doesn't make any sense at all to hide the SSID: your clients will disclose it anyway.
Same thing is true for restricting WLAN access to some MAC addresses - you sniff, you find a MAC which is allowed in, you fake the MAC. Make sure you either use WPA(2) with a really good key or a VPN - cracking WEP is a matter of minutes nowadays.
True, true. Somewhat related: Am I just unable to find them or did Apple really never release any updates for the Airport cards on the PPC platform? There were at least three for the Intel platform this year and since one of my friends is having trouble using WPA2 with the iBook I tried to find the updates but wasn't able to locate any.
> that's exactly why it doesn't make any sense at all to
> hide the SSID: your clients will disclose it anyway.
Ah, so if no clients ever access the router, it's secure, right?
Secure your PC three easy steps.
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