Re: [Karlnet] Kismet

[Chris Conn <cconn@abacom.com>]

Travis Brown wrote:
> I saw some disturbing text on the Kismet list about the author(s) 
> beginning to receive info from Kismet users about Karlnet including 
> packet dumps containing Karlnet traffic.
>
> Apparently, they are going to push now to identify and decode Karlnet 
> packets along with regular WiFi traffic. So far, from what I've seen, it 
> won't be too hard, as a Linux-head friend of mine was able to decode the 
> names of all of my Karlnet bases (SSIDs) and dig into the packets for info.
>
> Does this bother anyone besides me?
>
> Travis


Hello,

This should not really bother you any more than it did yesterday, since 
it has always been possible to do this, even with a Windows PC.  You 
don't need many fancy tools to do this, just a few keys to tweak in the 
windows registry, use Ethereal as a protocol anaylyser and use the 
standard Orinoco driver (that's right, no need to get a Karlnet NDIS 
license).  I can easily sniff with a Windows95 machine given about 20 
minutes of setup time.

I would say that the average script kiddy or wardriver will not succeed 
since it is not as easy as simply downloading netstumbler.  Also, 
ethereal is not too good at seeing the packet headers due to the bizzard 
size (superpacket aggregation), however most of the cleartext is visible 
when you scroll between packets.  You can easily see HTTP transactions, 
POP3 usernames and passwords, etc etc.  You just need to be a little 
more patient than your 802.11b counterparts.

We have always used WEP even though Karlnet has sustained that nobody 
does, and we have also been using the 8.10 Orinoco firmware since it 
includes the "weak wep key" avoidance, that is better than nothing.  Too 
bad the 4.0 kernels now load tertiary firmware, you drop back to 7.52 
and lose this functionality...It would be nice to see 8.10 in an 
eventual 4.x release (Doug?)

It would also be nice to see some sort of dynamic WEP keying like 802.1x???

Everyone I talked to, some on this list, have always lived in a world 
where Karlnet was proprietary therefore secure.  Sorry folks but it is 
not as secure as some believe, without the proper measures.

Just my 0.02$,

Chris