Is your wireless router secure? Have you ever thought about it?

stevemcol

taxi97w wrote: »

If it wasn't for the unsecure network that one of my neighbours kindly offers, I wouldn't have internet access at home.

Bless 'em.

Assuming you don't have their permission, you're breaking the law if you're bothered.

kwikbreaks

To get into a router settings page you have to either access it on it's local IP (usually 192.168.n.n) through WiFi (so you need the password) or ethernet (so you need physical access). If remote admin is enabled you can also access it via the public IP (there are scripts that scan umpteen public IPs for this and other open ports).

MarkBargain wrote: »

What does the Wardrive andoid app do? Plot wi-fi connections on a map and show which ones have no security presumably?

Yes. All you need do is turn on wifi and GPS, start it running, and take a stroll. It stores all the APs it receives along with their encryption type.

Using an open IP without permission is illegal. Getting caught doing so for casual use is unlikely. Doing so regularly is more likely to get detected but given the abilities of those leaving their WiFi open still not really very likely.

JustPassingBy

lucylucky wrote: »

It amazes me the number of home networks I can log into when I am out and about.

It amazes me how many people leave their car doors unlocked and the doors of their house unlatched. I suppose you would just open them, pop in and have a quick nosey about.

Pikeyp

I have my SSID set at 'Trojan Testing Here ..' and regularly change it to equally disturbing ones .. Hopefully that would deflect any passing interest.

taxi97w

stevemcol wrote: »

Assuming you don't have their permission, you're breaking the law if you're bothered.

No, I'm not bothered.

Browntoa

kwikbreaks wrote: »

You need an id and password to connect to the BT Fon APs.

WEP is not secure for sure but with so many wide open APs around it probably isn't worth the (admittedly short) time it would take to crack.

yes , theres much more attractive targets round here than my WEP signal

I used the blokes across the road when mine was off the air (yes I know it was wrong) due to a fault , could also navigate around their PC to an extent by looking at the network. Thankfully they swapped to another supplier and its now secure ( could not think of a way of knocking on the door and telling him it was so insecure without admitting I had used it )

Mr_Oink

People mistakenly think it must be difficult to 'hack' into computers, but the truth is it is trivial if you have a user who has all the best security kit in town, but has not locked the door.

Part of my job involves identifying vulnerabilities for providers and I've got to say the number of sitting ducks there are, running insecure 'routers', is utterly gobsmacking.

TalkTalk users seem particularly prone to poor security, often leaving the router with ftp, telnet and gui open to the whole, wide world. Worse still the password is often just admin/admin. On the other hand, we rarely find a Sky user wide open.

Gaining access to a router is serious. It gives an attacker the chance to carry out a range of attacks and hacking on the end user. Anything from simply changing the DNS servers to ones under the control of miscreants, to adding routes, turning off the firewall, opening ports, putting computers into DMZ etc so they can access them - to name but a few.

It gets worse than this. Many TalkTalk users expose open shares to the whole world. Sometimes they are simple Network Storage devices/external hard drives - other times they share the whole C$ drive without knowing it.

Personally I regularly see (predominantly) TalkTalk customers relieved of sensitive and intimate personal photos, text files with all their software keys/website passwords, screen shots of their online banking security questions along with login details, bills, financial details and even scans of passports and driving licences. It get's *really* scary when they have pictures and videos of their kids open to the whole world.

MAC AND LINUX USERS TAKE NOTE
Open shares on MACS, and open ports/listening services with known vulnerabilities on Linux are quite common. It is relatively easy to get reasonable leverage from them. Today I have seen a MAC open to the world with many of the files at least readable by anyone with the known how. Moral, don't assume they are safe as a misconfiguration or even a web server running a half installed, long forgotten web app can be the door in.



WHAT TO DO?
Enough of the FUD - what can you do? Personally.......
1: Make sure the default password is changed
2: Disable all 'remote administration' on the WAN side of the router, not forgetting telnet.
3: Make sure that the wireless is encrypted using WPA/WPA2.
4: Make sure that passwords and wireless keys are complex
5: If you are not using Wireless, turn it off
6: Security features like 'MAC Filtering' are spoofable - don't rely on them
7: Don't run the wireless 'Open'. Some file sharers like to do this, but would you leave a mile long lead plugged into your network outside your home, free for anyone to use?
8: Make sure that security features on the router - like a firewall - are ON.
9: From a security point of view it is usually better to disable UPNP that to leave it on.
10: Keep systems patched an up to date PARTICULARLY LINUX. Not bothering to update some seemingly trivial 'thing' can punish you dear.
11: Don't assume anti-virus will save you when downloading files. Signature based AV is mostly useless and hacking tools can pack malware to beat it.
12: Make use of a software firewall on your computers (anything like the free Zone Alert or better) and pay attention to both inbound and outbound connection warnings.

Often the first port of call is to check to see what you are advertising to the outside world. I'm not going to mention shed loads of security tools by name as in the hands of kids they can be quite intrusive. However, this website has stood the test of time:

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

A 'shields up' test will show you any obvious port open issues - but the type of scan it does is limited and on my own test box, where I have a well know port open, it passes :-(, so don't trust it entirely.

All open ports need investigation, but if you find 21,23,80,135 or 139 open I'd say you need to deal with it as a near emergency.

Apologies for the long, boring post - I hope it is helpful to someone. This concentrates on the OUTSIDE looking in (or remote attacks). I've not even started on internal users and how dangerous they can be!

JustPassingBy

Browntoa wrote: »

yes , theres much more attractive targets round here than my WEP signal

I used the blokes across the road when mine was off the air (yes I know it was wrong) due to a fault , could also navigate around their PC to an extent by looking at the network. Thankfully they swapped to another supplier and its now secure ( could not think of a way of knocking on the door and telling him it was so insecure without admitting I had used it )

I know how you feel. I once went into my neighbour's house when they were at work to make some toast (yes, I know it was wrong but my toaster was broken). While i was there I took a look at a photograph album in one of their cabinets. It passed through my mind to tell them not to leave their back door unlocked but couldn't think of a way without admitting my antisocialness.

RussJK

JustPassingBy wrote: »

It amazes me how many people leave their car doors unlocked and the doors of their house unlatched. I suppose you would just open them, pop in and have a quick nosey about.

An amusing analogy, but they are two different things. There are established laws about trespass on physical property, and these have no particular relevance on the issue. There are privacy laws including the Data Protection Act. There is the Computers Misuse Act, and there is the Communications Act 2003. Are there any more?

If someone is broadcasting their SSID to the world (their wireless signal into my house), and granting permission to requests to join their network, then that is hardly computer misuse. No hacking is involved, and as long as someone is reasonable with just checking light emails/browsing then they aren't necessarily causing disruption to the network either.

Still, there are times that it would seem more likely that someone has just forgotten to secure their connection, despite the technicalities of 'granting permission' that the modem does, so the dishonest aspect could come in under the Communications Act 2003 ( "person who (a) dishonestly obtains an electronic communications service, and (b) does so with intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service, is guilty of an offence".)

How can you know for sure that an unsecured wireless isn't intended to be shared? You can't - so you need to be guided by your own morals when using a mobile device and not abuse a free service. Intent matters as shown in (b).

Personally I don't feel that it's stealing when someone is sharing their connection to the world, but I wouldn't abuse it with downloads or access content that would put the owners at risk. The onus is on people to secure their networks, not for mobile device users to worry whether an open wireless network is intended to be shared.

debitcardmayhem

MarkBargain wrote: »

......snipped

1: Have you ever changed your router password? (router password, not wi-fi password). If not, it is probably the default one written on the bottom of the router, likely to be "password". Not very secure then!

2: Do you have encryption set up and if so what? The options on my Netgear router are:
......trimmed

Sounds like a Danny post , maybe it's me and it's Friday and I had no fish ............