wireless networking at hotels

[jay]

On Mon, 21 May 2001, Jack Morgan wrote:

> I don't think a wireless card can open up an OS to backdoor hacks,
> although it does give more time to the hacker to try to get in, but
> you can do that to any computer connected to the net.  The most
> someone could do is pickup plain text passwords, and only if you can
> actually hear the client, as most of the time you can only pickup up
> what the server is sending unless your setup in a location to pickup
> both sides of the wireless conversation.

hmm... for the backdooring, i guess i was thinking more of a corporate
environment where you're bound to have unauthorized access points to
hop onto the network.  altho, if you check in as a guest, grab a dhcp
lease and start doing some probes, you're bound to find something
fruitful.  i've seen silly people running IIS on their laptops before.
i wonder how many hotels have 24/7 sysadmins with IDS setups?

also, i'm pretty sure you'd be able to pick up client _and_ server
traffic with the right antenna and a reasonable proximity to the client.
this'd only work with networks that didn't have wep or some other kind
of encryption implemented.  as an alternative, you could sit at the pool,
log 20 gigs or so of traffic, then take it home and you have the rest of
your lifetime to do statistical comparisons to figure out what keys are
being used.   not very practical for the average dude, but i guess if
you're one of those industrial espionage types, it'd be worth it.

yeah, i'm bored.

=jay