-----Original Message----- From: information_technology-admin@private [mailto:information_technology-admin@private] On Behalf Of InfraGard Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 11:46 AM To: Information Technology Subject: [Information_technology] Daily News 11/07/03 November 06, InternetNews.com - Weakness found in Wi-Fi security protocol. Wireless security expert Robert Moskowitz has detected a glaring weakness in the interface design of a Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocol deployed in numerous Wireless LAN products. According to a research paper written by Moskowitz, the weakness could allow intruders to crack poorly chosen passphrases via offline dictionary attacks. The paper means that Wi-Fi hardware products that ship with WPA might be less secure than the older Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP), which it replaced in 2002. The WPA standard was designed to improve upon the security features in wireless networks. The weakness only takes effect when short, text-based keys are used and does not reflect a fault in the WPA protocol. The weakness can be avoided if WLAN hardware manufacturers build units with the ability to generate random keys that can be copied and pasted across systems. Manufacturers can also restrict the ability to enter weak keys by requiring passphrases with numerous characters instead of words that can be found in the dictionary. Moskowitz warned that dictionary based programs used to crack passwords are heavily used by criminal hackers. The paper is available online: http://wifinetnews.com/archives/002452.html Source: http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/3105271 Current Alert Levels AlertCon: 1 out of 4 https://gtoc.iss.net Security Focus ThreatCon: 1 out of 4 http://analyzer.securityfocus.com/ Current Virus and Port Attacks Virus: #1 Virus in the United States: WORM_LOVGATE.G Source: http://wtc.trendmicro.com/wtc/wmap.html, Trend World Micro Virus Tracking Center [Infected Computers, North America, Past 24 hours, #1 in United States] Top 10 Target Ports 135 (epmap), 1434 (ms?sql?m), 137 (netbios?ns), 445 (microsoft?ds), 80 (www), 901 (realsecure), 53 (domain), 161 (snmp), 27347 (???), 139 (netbios?ssn) Source: http://isc.incidents.org/top10.html; Internet Storm Center _______________________________________________ Information_technology mailing list Information_technology@listserv
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