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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

#141

Post by hunter2_ »

reaperducer wrote: post #126
ryder9 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because urls have letters & words in english that I can read and determine if the website is authentic or not as opposed to QR code that no human can read? Have you never come across phishing scams that looked eerily authentic only to be clued in by the fake url? I can read the URL before going to the website, and unless QR codes have a step where you have to manually confirm going to the url provided by the code (mo…

Because urls have letters & words in english that I can read and determine if the website is authentic You must have some super-human ability to read a computer's mind if you can grok the kind of urls that usually come in emails like https://tinyurl.com/uvc58uq

You can see what the tinyurl redirect destination URL is (value of Location response header) without also requesting that URL. Not with a typical browser configuration, but with curl or some hosted solution delivering this functionality.

Of course, if the email actually has a unique URL per recipient, then doing this gives away the fact that you interacted with the email.

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

#142

Post by gpvos »

91iejrj20310 wrote: post #76
gpvos wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're shifting responsibility from developers to the users. If reading a QR code triggers a bank transaction, that's an issue with the QR scanner and the banking application. Users cannot check if a domain is "ok" by looking at it. You visit websites to discover what's there. A few years ago it was common knowledge that ".to" is shady and ".com" looks more legit. Now we have more TLDs than I can count. How is someon…

I was mostly thinking about URLs in untrusted contexts, like maybe from an ad you see on the street, that you want to screen by hand against malicious intent; not so much about things like your banking app example, which should always have some kind of confirmation anyway.

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

#143

Post by Phobophobia »

ctdonath wrote: post #124
matt-attack wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you never click URLs in emails? Of course you do, when you're confident the sender is reputable. Parent was referencing trusted contexts: the default password printed on your wifi router, the bill a cashier just handed you for what you just bought, the legal papers you just signed, etc. The QR code just links the trusted document with trustworthy digital versions & extended content. I'm not worried a spammer is go…

Don't most people within the HN demographic mouse over to see the link in emails?

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

#144

Post by mk89 »

kohtatsu wrote: post #135
ctdonath wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you never click URLs in emails? Of course you do, when you're confident the sender is reputable. Parent was referencing trusted contexts: the default password printed on your wifi router, the bill a cashier just handed you for what you just bought, the legal papers you just signed, etc. The QR code just links the trusted document with trustworthy digital versions & extended content. I'm not worried a spammer is go…

I can't imagine a qr code on a receipt being anything but tracker-infested spam.

That's how it currently is in some shops. Amazing how marketers are always ahead on such technologies.

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

#145

Post by Spare_account »

Phobophobia wrote: post #143
ctdonath wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you never click URLs in emails? Of course you do, when you're confident the sender is reputable. Parent was referencing trusted contexts: the default password printed on your wifi router, the bill a cashier just handed you for what you just bought, the legal papers you just signed, etc. The QR code just links the trusted document with trustworthy digital versions & extended content. I'm not worried a spammer is go…

Don't most people within the HN demographic mouse over to see the link in emails?

For comparison, my phone shows me the URL that the QR code decoded to, and prompts me to confirm that I want to browse to it

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

#146

Post by badatseciruty »

sm4rk0 wrote: post #108

And if you're using DuckDuckGo (and are not concerned about transferring your WiFi, or whatever data) you can try this query: qr some text https://duckduckgo.com/?q=qr+hi+there&ia=answer

I use DDG as my daily search engine and didn't know about this. I'm frequently impressed by all the "extras" that they include.

I think I'll start using this a lot!

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

#147

Post by smegger001 »

michaelt wrote: post #123
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7kb for a supermarket bill is plenty, and you can have several of them. Forms and legal documents should all have an immutable official url and uuid anyway to point to their legal and administrative context.

The largest QR code in the standard, "version 40" - can only store 3 kilobytes at the lowest level of error correction and 1.2 kilobytes at the highest level [1]. And that's a pretty huge QR code [2] My back-of-the-envelope calculations say you'd need 61 bits per line on a receipt just to encode UPC, quantity and price. So the largest QR code would only allow 19-50 lines. And that's without including data like the st…

it could just contain a url linking to a page with to content.

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

#148

Post by fastball »

Fnoord wrote: post #116
stavros wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have hereby been whooshed, though in my defense I have a guest-only, throttled and isolated wifi network so the potential for misuse didn't occur to me.

I have exactly the same. I don't want the entire world to use it though, as it still uses my broadband connection, which contains my external IPv4 address. I guess I should tunnel it over a VPN instead.

Pretty sure only people who know where you live can use your wifi network, and only then when they are in range - not the entire world.

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

#149

Post by zeeZ »

cm2187 wrote: post #65
jimueller wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

When a friend tried to connect to a new network on their MacBook, a second friend with an iPad got a pop-up that such-and-such was attempting to connect to their network, and if they wanted to share connection details. One click and they were in.

Creepy, but convenient.

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

#150

Post by badatseciruty »

vbezhenar wrote: post #130
alexchamberlain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t give your WiFi password to everyone that visits?

These days everyone have 4G internet, so there's no point to giving your WiFi password to everyone.

I do have 4G, but at $1 per 100MB. I'd rather have the WiFi password when one's available.
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