November 29, 2001

9:27 AM

AirSnort.The dangerous app with the unlikely name allows users to snatch data being passed over wireless networks, eventually capturing passwords to the network.
posted by o2b (7 comments total)

*sniff* *sniff*

are those passwords i smell cookin?
posted by chrisroberts at 9:38 AM on November 29, 2001

I hope someone actually tries to run AirSnort on my home airport network.

After secretly capturing gigs of data and crunching that data all day, I would pay to see the look on their face when they realize the network password is "foo."
posted by mathowie at 9:42 AM on November 29, 2001

the program lives here.
posted by chrisroberts at 9:57 AM on November 29, 2001

From the article:

Many wireless networks allow amazingly easy access to unauthorized users, as some have discovered when their laptops suddenly connect to the Internet when they are in or near a building that has a wireless network.

No kidding. You don't even need something like AirSnort to piggyback on someone's wireless net access. A friend and I did one of the tests described in this article, just to see for ourselves if there were really that many people running unsecured wireless networks.

Laptop open, on a city bus headed down Lexington Ave from the Upper East Side to midtown in Manhattan, surfing the web. So yeah, people need to be a little more aware about security. And I've got an Apple AirPort at home, so I need to worry about this stuff too.
posted by nstop at 9:58 AM on November 29, 2001

"Dangerous"? What's dangerous is relying on bad code to secure your network. I also recommend not using balsa wood doors to secure your possessions.

The IEEE should have put this up for a peer review before they finalized it.

Kerberos, Secure Shell and IPSEC are your friends. You should be using them even if you don't use a wireless network.

(Next thing you know some nitwit will decide we need to outlaw Airsnort because it is "dangerous".)
posted by hadashi at 10:09 AM on November 29, 2001

(Next thing you know some nitwit will decide we need to outlaw Airsnort because it is "dangerous".)

It'll take less than 4 business days.
posted by yesster at 11:08 AM on November 29, 2001

put the access point outside the firewall and VPN back in. end of story if your data matters to you.
posted by machaus at 2:53 PM on November 29, 2001