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Hacking Airport Wi-Fi

forbes.com — Richard Farina booted up his computer on an American Airlines flight in October from New York to San Francisco. It was one of the first commercial flights to offer wireless Internet service. Within a couple minutes of reaching 10,000 feet, Farina was snooping the airwaves with the ability to see what his fellow pass

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 24, 2008

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  • purseonality, on 11/24/2008, -2/+158Why should I expect them to keep my data secure? They can't even get my bags to the right place.
  • GiJoeBob, on 11/24/2008, -2/+74Seat 5D has the best porn.
  • warchant, on 11/24/2008, -2/+50the last thing i want to do in the US is do any sort of hacking at an airport.
  • brainnovate, on 11/23/2008, -5/+52Correct link http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/1208/052.html
  • Wiini, on 11/24/2008, -0/+36Well Duh:
    "Viewing Unencrypted Wifi Traffic in 5 Minutes or Less"
    http://www.imasuper.com/51/viewing-unencrypted-wif ...

    And:
    Securing your connection, even on unencrypted wifi
    http://www.imasuper.com/188/technology/keeping-you ...
  • Vectorkov, on 11/24/2008, -4/+40An advertisement disguised as an article.
  • MRintheKeys, on 11/24/2008, -0/+31"Hey what!!?!?! This is not my packet!"
  • voldron, on 11/24/2008, -4/+30Mile high packet club
  • nanoune, on 11/24/2008, -2/+28gimme a break - I don't want public wireless hotspots to be "secure" - then how will I access them? Logging into each hotspot every where I go is a pain. Let me worry about protecting my PC, just give me free, open wifi.
  • darkism, on 11/24/2008, -0/+23The answer is a wired connection.
  • Evi1d33d, on 11/24/2008, -0/+14Okay, a noob question: If I'm on a encrypted wifi network then can other people on the same network view my traffic? Since they have the encryption key and all.
  • DOCNM, on 11/24/2008, -0/+13I'm sick of all these 1st/business class goodies. Down in 48A all we get is porntube.com
  • Zippo, on 11/24/2008, -10/+23In short, use WPA2 and decent passwords for crying out loud.
  • inactive, on 11/24/2008, -3/+16That works for home users, but what about for enterprise-level solutions? The answer is much more complicated than "turn on WPA2 and use decent passwords; lolz".
  • NathanielJ, on 11/24/2008, -0/+12You'd need pretty long wires to reach 30,000 feet.
  • compsciguy, on 11/24/2008, -0/+11[this comment has been hacked while posting via airport network]
  • mojotooth, on 11/24/2008, -0/+11Buried for this phrase: "terrorists this summer broke into underprotected networks..." BROKE into UNPROTECTED networks?
  • Truth3, on 11/24/2008, -1/+9I'll plug my usb stick into your port and you WILL accept the data stream. Taste it, its good for ya.
  • v4vishal, on 11/24/2008, -1/+9Lesson learned: Never give hacker a cramped middle seat.
  • yabos, on 11/24/2008, -0/+8That doesn't do anything for airport networks which by design have to be unencrypted to make it easier for people to join it.
  • inactive, on 11/24/2008, -1/+9Filed under: "No *****?"
  • inactive, on 11/24/2008, -2/+9Why do they need a special network on a plane to provide Wi-Fi access?

    ...didn't United Flight 93 prove cell phones flawlessly work at 30,000 ft?
  • greeniy, on 11/24/2008, -0/+7Perhaps, but that wasn't over the middle of the Pacific, where signal strength is patchy.
  • rexykik, on 11/24/2008, -1/+7Security through obscurity is not security at all. This is old news, anyways. How long has WEP been crackable? Even WPA, with the leak, is much more secure. Regardless, you should protect your own traffic and not rely on the service provider for encrypted.
  • crazyjake, on 11/24/2008, -0/+6they also stole all of the free samples.
  • inactive, on 11/24/2008, -2/+8This is why we never get good things....
  • DOCNM, on 11/24/2008, -0/+6Seriously. I expect all wireless networks to be non-secure.
    If all I do is surf the web for lulz, I don't really care if someone snoop on my funnyordie stream.
    For serious stuff I only use secure servers and if I really need to access my top secret world domination plans, I use a VPN connection to my server.
  • b0bby, on 11/24/2008, -1/+7I prefer open access points, and a VPN connection.
  • DOCNM, on 11/24/2008, -3/+8VPN?
  • unrealmp3, on 11/25/2008, -0/+5Simple, protect you data with an SSH tunnel or a VPN connection.
  • lukasmack, on 11/24/2008, -4/+9"Wireless networks are some of the most easily hacked"

    Really?
  • JohnFrum, on 11/24/2008, -1/+6Bags are UDP, these are TCP, so it's better.
  • netneutrality, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4Encrypting public hotspot traffic does not help, since the the password to be generally known for people to use it.

    And it doesn't account for phony hotspots, which anyone with an aircrack-compatible wireless card can create and use to record all the traffic and cookies that pass through.
  • austang, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4you filed this?
  • madeingermany, on 11/24/2008, -1/+5But the original link has way more interesting information! ;)
  • Gamer0808, on 11/24/2008, -3/+7The answer is to use WPA2 and dot1x instead of a PSK. Using that in conjunction with a Certificate server as well as CHAP/PAP with authentication coming from a radius server using either LDAP or RSA makes for ver secure Wifi network.
  • ReyX, on 11/25/2008, -0/+4I also wanted to digg your question and not provide an answer.
  • reqage, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4My packet has a yellow ribbon on it.
  • MrGreenGenes, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4Well you could still have a wired LAN in the plane.
  • Raptor007, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4But how will I play my DS on Nintendo Wi-Fi?
  • DJPandemonium, on 11/25/2008, -0/+4Correct.
    With the encryption key they can see your traffic.
  • Troy64, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4Your bags have been routed to Tulsa

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jQxuiuk3I
  • teamgwho, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4Geez can't you just wait to watch your streaming porn till you get to the hotel?
  • knowmad23, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3there's another way to write an article?
  • chasebadkids, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3viral marketing
  • compsciguy, on 11/24/2008, -1/+4"underprotected" could also include "protected" networks with WEP, they are still protected, just not well...lol
  • Cjaiceman, on 11/25/2008, -0/+3This is why on any public network I am on that I do ANYTHING sensitive I use my VPN back to my server at my house.
  • Cjaiceman, on 11/25/2008, -0/+3Yes, go to an airport that offers free wifi.
  • Wiini, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3Most VPN's only use the VPN tunnel when you're accessing intranet sites. Very few VPN's are configured, or even able, to tunnel all traffic through the VPN.

    You'd have to go static on the Open network, and configure DNS to utilize VPN at best. And even then, no gurantee that you're tunneled.

    Better to create an SSH tunnel.
  • Wiini, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3@wolfing:
    Nah - VPN credentials are locked down when connecting to a tunnel. There is a cisco exploit, but even that only gets you the cisco group password - not the user credentials itself, which are still needed to make a connection.
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