Wi-Fi WEP Keys Now Crackable in One Minute

Fri Apr 6, 2007 4:48PM EDT

See Comments (5)

I harp on wireless security a lot, but early versions of the encryption protocol in wireless routers are getting less and less secure by the day. The latest flaw? The WEP protocol, which can now by cracked in under a minute (or two at the most), and most of that time is involved in capturing data going through the air so it can be analyzed. Once captured, the processing time takes about three seconds.

These cracks are nothing new. As The Register notes, the basics have been around since 2001, but cryptographers have been steadily refining the algorithms to reverse engineer the WEP key from the data. Now it's a matter of child's play.

What can you do? Well, stop using WEP. Though it's not perfect, WPA (also known as WPA-PSK) is somewhat more secure than WEP. (WPA2 is even better, but support is far from universal.) At the very least, WPA cracking tools aren't nearly as widespread as those for cracking WEP. Alas, while new Wi-Fi security protocols have been in the works, none is on the immediate horizon for adoption by the industry.

LINK: WEP key wireless cracking made easy 

Comments on Wi-Fi WEP Keys Now Crackable in One Minute

Post a Comment

Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.

  • 1 Posted by somebodys_here on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    wow, now I'm really glad I have agood firewall. actually three.

  • 2 Posted by jameslongstrider on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hmm, Thanks for posting this Chris, I wouldn't have found out till much later. As soon as I get back home I'm changing the encryption to WPA on my router. I have some friends who fell victim to someone cracking their WEP lately and doing less than legal things with their internet access. Now I can help prevent that from re-occuring.

  • 3 Posted by joshooi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:41PM EDT Report Abuse

    One easy way of maintainng security is to add a wireless router to a non wireless router. Setup the non wireless router as your network. To set up wireless, attached a wireless router (not an access point) to the non-wireless router. This will provide another layer of firewall to your local network. So what if they break the WEP code.

  • 4 Posted by gwilterdink on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:15PM EDT Report Abuse

    My cheap little Belkin wireless router has MAC address filtering. I maintain a very short list of authorized computers and only they are allowed access. If the MAC address doesn't match with any on the list - blocked. Seems to be very effective.

  • 5 Posted by dooglecs on Wed Sep 2, 2009 6:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    I do not know why a person would take this as a surprise, any and all networked computers can be hacked, there is NO such thing in 100% secure, if there was such a thing then the cia, fbi, nsa, and dod would have nothing to worry about!! If they can be hacked then so can a $2000.00 computer from best buy with $50.00 per month isp. 100% security is obtained when you unplug the device from a power source...

More Posts: 1

Post a Comment

Sign In to Post a Comment

My Tech

Please enable your browser's cookies to activate the My Tech column.

Also on Yahoo! Tech

Computers Home Office Wi-Fi & Networking Phones & PDAs Cameras & Camcorders TV & Home Theater Portable Audio
 

Site Map | Tour | Subscribe to Yahoo! Tech

Question and Answer content at Yahoo! Tech is written by Yahoo! users at Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any Yahoo! Answers content. For more information, read the Full Disclaimer.

Opinions expressed by the Advisors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo! receives no compensation from any manufacturer or distributor nor does it compensate any Advisor for the coverage of any product or service in any Advisor's content.