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Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

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Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#91

Post by finnyspade »

tdicola wrote: post #90
finnyspade wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This solves the problem of asking people the wifi password whenever you go over to their house. To a lot of people it's just a pain. When you tell your friends your password, just tell them not to share it. Done! I would wager it helps the windows phone users and doesn't hurt other people. Also it's coming to windows 10 I believe.

No, when you save the credentials of the wifi password locally that solves the problem of having to ask your friend for the password every time you go to their place. There's no need to broadcast the password to every friend to fix that scenario. This is your friend sharing out your credentials to everyone they know automatically--perhaps to people who you don't know or don't want to have the password. What happens w…

It's not only your friends sharing when you don't want it. It's end users that own the router that want to share it. If you put yourself into your grandmother's shoes it may be less mindboggling. Security is all about securing content to the extent to which it is valuable. Many people would argue that their wifi password is not that valuable and therefore not requiring the greatest amount of security. Some people will find this feature convenient. It's for them and clearly not for you. You are no less insecure than you were previously. If you trust the people you give your wifi password to, then there's no issue.

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#92

Post by finnyspade »

RexRollman wrote: post #77
unsignedint wrote: post #59

Asking people to change their SSID so the system won't share something they are not supposed to be sharing to begin with is very ridiculous. I really don't understand why this is not opt-in to begin with. Microsoft should be forcing people to put in _optin in their SSID to allow this feature to work if they are so inclined to use an SSID to regulate access. At least it would be semi-tolerable if there was a web form…

Agreed. At my house, we have three laptops, a desktop, three tablets and two smart phones. I don't want to have to change the wireless settings of nine devices because of Microsoft. If this features truly works as stated, it is an incredibly arrogant thing for MS to do.

It doesn't work as stated. Users have to opt to share the password when they connect to wifi router. This checkbox is empty by default meaning you don't share the password by default.

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#93

Post by ytdht »

ytdht wrote: post #67
dd9990 wrote: post #24

"The only way to opt out of this "feature" is to change the name of your SSID to include _optout at the end" Google requires you to have "_nomap" at the end of SSIDs to "opt out" of certain services...

are you saying that SSIDs should have infinite lengths?

sorry if you don't have a sense of humor as this was clearly not a serious question

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#94

Post by sebastianavina »

OJFord wrote: post #63
Nullabillity wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Microsoft page says it has to contain _optout, not that it has to end with it.

Presumably for this reason; so XYZ_optout_nomap works. But this is just silly.

Imagine SSIDs in a couple of years...

COMCAST56B4_nomap_output_security_reinforce_superhappy_wifienable_security_ALLOW-P^[A-Za-z0-9\.]+$-_DISALLOW-P^[pet][0-9]$

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#95

Post by [deleted] »

finnyspade wrote: post #86

There's a lot of FUD & frankly inaccurate information floating around here. When connecting to a password protected router you are given an UNCHECKED BY DEFAULT option to share the password with your friends. What this means is, the user can deliberately share the password they know. This is just as secure as any other system because once you give a user a password they could share it if they chose. Nothing here is "…

[deleted]

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#96

Post by readme »

finnyspade wrote: post #89
tdicola wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if people opt into it, why should this happen automatically? If one of my friends told every single Facebook friend of theirs the password to my wifi I would have a very strong conversation with them and probably never invite them into my home or even consider them a friend anymore. Just because they _can_ share the password doesn't mean they _should_ share the password. I don't see why this kind of automatic sh…

This solves the problem of asking people the wifi password whenever you go over to their house. To a lot of people it's just a pain. When you tell your friends your password, just tell them not to share it. Done! I would wager it helps the windows phone users and doesn't hurt other people. Also it's coming to windows 10 I believe.

>solves the problem of asking people the wifi password whenever you go over to their house

Why is this such a difficult task that it even needs to be solved?

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#97

Post by memracom »

finnyspade wrote: post #89
tdicola wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if people opt into it, why should this happen automatically? If one of my friends told every single Facebook friend of theirs the password to my wifi I would have a very strong conversation with them and probably never invite them into my home or even consider them a friend anymore. Just because they _can_ share the password doesn't mean they _should_ share the password. I don't see why this kind of automatic sh…

This solves the problem of asking people the wifi password whenever you go over to their house. To a lot of people it's just a pain. When you tell your friends your password, just tell them not to share it. Done! I would wager it helps the windows phone users and doesn't hurt other people. Also it's coming to windows 10 I believe.

It is NOT a pain to tell people the password, just good security hygiene which everybody needs to learn and to do conscientiously. It is no different from using toilet paper after number 2, then flushing and then washing your hands. Want to live in a modern society? Then do your duty.

And if someone thinks it is a pain to always be asking, then they are free to use cellular connectivity or maybe even, sit and talk without damned devices in their hands.

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#98

Post by rythie »

superuser2 wrote: post #29
molecule wrote: post #11

https://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/how-to/wp8/connectivity/u... >... WiFi Sense can do a lot of things for you to get you connected to the Internet using WiFi, so you don't have to do them on your own. These include:... > - Accepting a WiFi network's terms of use on your behalf... That doesn't seem appropriate.

On the contrary, dealing with captive portals is quite annoying, especially since they just generate browser warnings with HTTPS. You have to go out of your way to open a plain-HTTP website so that it can be intercepted properly, just so you can click "I accept" again. Additionally, these things have short memories - if you're at a coffee shop you frequent, you might be clicking through the captive portal for the 150…

There is a long standing technical solution, though it's not widely implemented, WPA-enterprise. With WPA-enterprise I have my own personal key and I am automatically logged in. In the UK, "The Cloud" service offers this, which is many coffee shops and similar public places.

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#99

Post by speleding »

themartorana wrote: post #40
superuser2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, dealing with captive portals is quite annoying, especially since they just generate browser warnings with HTTPS. You have to go out of your way to open a plain-HTTP website so that it can be intercepted properly, just so you can click "I accept" again. Additionally, these things have short memories - if you're at a coffee shop you frequent, you might be clicking through the captive portal for the 150…

Yeah but, you're basically agreeing to assume risk. You still get a choice - you choose to ignore the TOS and click through. Time and again courts have upheld click-through TOS and EULAs. Ignorance is rarely an excuse. So if something clicks through a captive portal for you, the defense of "I didn't know..." isn't going to hold much water. The only defense might be that Microsoft accepted the terms and they should ac…

> Time and again courts have upheld click-through TOS and EULAs

In the US perhaps. Most other places have consumer protection laws that require a much higher standard for contracts to be legally binding.

Re: Windows 10 “WiFi Sense” automatically leaks your wifi password to strangers

#100

Post by benjin »

dagw wrote: post #39

Just as I was starting to get excited about Microsoft actually seeming to generally 'get it', they go and do something monstrously stupid like this.

Alternatively, you could actually go look up and understand how this works and realize that 80% of this thread is misinformation.
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