Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

Is this some kind of artificial test or is it a real issue? What I mean is that the article mentions running through about 400,000 passwords per second and the hack took 20 minutes. But wouldn't most servers or routers block the user out after so many failed logins? How do they get around that?

Re: Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

#6

Post by Herring » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 6:44 AM UTC

dmfdmf wrote: post #5

Is this some kind of artificial test or is it a real issue? What I mean is that the article mentions running through about 400,000 passwords per second and the hack took 20 minutes. But wouldn't most servers or routers block the user out after so many failed logins? How do they get around that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_cracking

Re: Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

#7

Post by forensic » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 6:46 AM UTC

dmfdmf wrote: post #5

Is this some kind of artificial test or is it a real issue? What I mean is that the article mentions running through about 400,000 passwords per second and the hack took 20 minutes. But wouldn't most servers or routers block the user out after so many failed logins? How do they get around that?

You don't actually send 400,000 passwords to the server. You capture legit packets traveling between the access point and an authorized user and then run your brute force algo on their encryption.

Re: Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

#8

Post by ErrantX » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 9:28 AM UTC

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #4

Wasn't this done months ago? (/me looks for the article) Well, this was more generic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1907513 Oh, it was over a year ago: http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/12/07/2322235/WPA-PSK-Cracki...

In the nicest way possible, this is probably just an ad piece for his service (http://www.wpacracker.com/) It has been possible to brute force WPA-PSK for ages, you just needed a lot of computing power. It appears he did this with a dictionary attack, not bruteforce (see: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Cracking-WPA-keys...) and, so, it is no wonder it was fast - but that is limited.

EC2 is an option, sure, but it's going to get expensive for commercial purposes. (I have issues with their costings... if it took 20 minutes, even using just one instance that would be.. $5.60, and other sources state he used many more than one :D EDIT: ah, sorry, he did use one instance and they are talking about his "6 minute" promise. Still, nothing you couldn't do on a decently fast "local" machine for cheaper)

We ran some trials with EC2 and the cost starts to mount for anything complex. A few of racks of meaty servers is, if you have a volume of work, is a cheaper investment.

Ultimately it looks like he is dealing with dictionary work - which is fine (and does work well). But will quickly fail with anyone competent (I going to hazard a rough guess of about 25% of the time based on my experience), which is where work with pre-computed tables and bruteforcing comes into play.

I'm not sure there is much substance to this story, sadly.

Re: Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

#9

Post by JoachimSchipper » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 9:36 AM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #2

Not judging but I love how the term "researcher" has been adopted as a way to guise whitehat activities. I wish I could use that to get out of speeding tickets "Officer I am just a researcher and trying to determine if the 55mph speed limit sign is really the law and if it's possible to break it"

Meh, as long as you're only picking your own locks, who cares? (And yes, there are people who pick locks for fun.)

Re: Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

#10

Post by dalore » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 11:08 AM UTC

ErrantX wrote: post #8

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #4

Wasn't this done months ago? (/me looks for the article) Well, this was more generic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1907513 Oh, it was over a year ago: http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/12/07/2322235/WPA-PSK-Cracki...

In the nicest way possible, this is probably just an ad piece for his service ( http://www.wpacracker.com/ ) It has been possible to brute force WPA-PSK for ages, you just needed a lot of computing power. It appears he did this with a dictionary attack, not bruteforce (see: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Cracking-WPA-keys... ) and, so, it is no wonder it was fast - but that is limited. EC2 is an option, s…

EC2 also charge instances per full hour. If you start one and use it for only a few minutes you are charged for a full go.

They probably took that $5.60 figure and tried to scale it for the amount of time he used.