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Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

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Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#61

Post by m45t3r »

madsbuch wrote: post #36
jamsinclair wrote: post #34

For those concerned about entering your network info into an online qr tool, some time ago I attempted a minimal JS and transparent site for generating these codes ( https://github.com/jamsinclair/wifiqr ). Or I suppose just use the cli tools, as mentioned, for extra safety...

Or is it extra safety to use the CLI? Arguably it is easier to verify that a webapp is not sending the data to a 3rd party, than it is to verify that the CLI tool doesn't (easy network inspection from the developer tools).

I don't think it is that problematic to put your WiFi credentials to a random website, since the possibility of the creator is a scammer AND lives near enough to you so it can exploits that fact is really small.

However sure, having the piece of mind that this will not happen may still make it more worth it do it yourself.

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#62

Post by jimueller »

kokada wrote: post #60

This is interesting, however my main problem with really long Wi-Fi password are devices that have bad ways to input text. Things like media box using a remote controller or a video game console using it's controller. WPS was born to fix this, however the specification is so broken that it is literally useless from a secure standpoint.

Indeed, or dialing in 63 chars on a Nest thermostat would take about 10 minutes.

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#63

Post by toyg »

speleding wrote: post #46

Instead of installing a package to generate a QR code, you can simply use this free Google service: https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=120x120&cht=qr&chl=WI... ;; Remember to URL encode the SSID en PASSWORD if you have any characters that can't go into a URL. (Also, you have to trust Google to not store that URL anywhere)

Yes, let’s give all passwords for wifi networks to the company that notoriously maps all wifi networks they can find. What could possibly go wrong...?

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#64

Post by gpvos »

matt-attack wrote: post #47
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Most ISP put this kind of QR code on the provided "modem" in France with the default Wifi password of the device. I love QR code. I think it should be everywhere. All legal documents and forms should have one. All supermarket bills should have one. It's a fantastic way to transition from paper to bits. Unfortunately most users have no idea what it is. They don't know what a URL is, so a QR code is out of the question…

Are you not concerned that QR code’s are just completely opaque URLs asking to be clicked? Do you confidently click on URLs in spam emails? Of course not since we all know URLs can point to malicious payloads. So why should we love QR code’s that could just as easily do the same. If I’m a spammer trying to get people to click on my bogus links in my email messages, why wouldn’t I also print those same URLs as QR code…

The QR scanning app that I use displays the URL so I can check if it looks okay, but most of them are abbreviated using services like bit.ly, so that doesn't help much. You'd have to have a UI that lets the user step through several redirections, but that would probably confuse people.

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#65

Post by cm2187 »

jimueller wrote: post #62
kokada wrote: post #60

This is interesting, however my main problem with really long Wi-Fi password are devices that have bad ways to input text. Things like media box using a remote controller or a video game console using it's controller. WPS was born to fix this, however the specification is so broken that it is literally useless from a secure standpoint.

Indeed, or dialing in 63 chars on a Nest thermostat would take about 10 minutes.

Or when you setup a new apple computer, you have to enter the wifi password without being able to see what you type, without being sure it is the right casing, and if you are not in the US without being sure you are using the right keyboard layout in the first place (the is no opportunity to type something else in a clear text box before that step).

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#66

Post by tjoff »

toyg wrote: post #63
speleding wrote: post #46

Instead of installing a package to generate a QR code, you can simply use this free Google service: https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=120x120&cht=qr&chl=WI... ;; Remember to URL encode the SSID en PASSWORD if you have any characters that can't go into a URL. (Also, you have to trust Google to not store that URL anywhere)

Yes, let’s give all passwords for wifi networks to the company that notoriously maps all wifi networks they can find. What could possibly go wrong...?

They already have all passwords... They are conveniently backed up on android devices. They have the cleartext.

(as do apple btw.)

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#67

Post by dingaling »

smhg wrote: post #20
walrus01 wrote: post #5

Is it only Android 10 that can do this with scanning a qr code, or also v9?

The default camera app on my Moto G7 (Android 9) scans QR codes. When it detects this format inside a QR it offers a 'connect to wifi' button.

Oddly the G7 Play camera just stares dumbly at the QR.

When I use a third-party reader it shows that a password containing special characters really confuses this particular notation, since colons and semicolons are also used for field delimiters. Even if I escape them when passing the argument to qrencode, the parser app stumbles on them.

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#68

Post by slim »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Most ISP put this kind of QR code on the provided "modem" in France with the default Wifi password of the device. I love QR code. I think it should be everywhere. All legal documents and forms should have one. All supermarket bills should have one. It's a fantastic way to transition from paper to bits. Unfortunately most users have no idea what it is. They don't know what a URL is, so a QR code is out of the question…

firefox preview has an embedded qrcode scanner

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#69

Post by slim »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #48
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Most ISP put this kind of QR code on the provided "modem" in France with the default Wifi password of the device. I love QR code. I think it should be everywhere. All legal documents and forms should have one. All supermarket bills should have one. It's a fantastic way to transition from paper to bits. Unfortunately most users have no idea what it is. They don't know what a URL is, so a QR code is out of the question…

They can’t be used to encode very much data though. They wouldn’t be suitable for storing documents, but could be used to store the location of a document. I was trying to be clever once and thought I could encode X.509 certificates in QR codes. Even that much data was pushing the hard limits of what they can store, and became very hard to scan (I quickly realised this wasn’t actually very clever).

i think datamatrix is more suitable for x509

Re: Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code

#70

Post by BiteCode_dev »

slim wrote: post #68
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Most ISP put this kind of QR code on the provided "modem" in France with the default Wifi password of the device. I love QR code. I think it should be everywhere. All legal documents and forms should have one. All supermarket bills should have one. It's a fantastic way to transition from paper to bits. Unfortunately most users have no idea what it is. They don't know what a URL is, so a QR code is out of the question…

firefox preview has an embedded qrcode scanner

For url only. Qrcode are for much more than url.
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