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C. J. Kelly's picture
C. J. Kelly

A Day in the Life of an Information Security Officer

Don't go wireless at Black Hat

I am attending the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas and one of the things I decided against is taking my laptop and wireless card.  I don't want to end up on the wall of shame.  If you go wireless at Black Hat, you will be sure to find your user names and passwords advertised at Black Hat as having been compromised.  It's a game of sorts.  I was not confident enough to brazenly offer up my user names and passwords.

This article  reminded me of the dangers of going wireless at Black Hat or anywhere for that matter.

Apparently, "Security researchers David Maynor and Jon Ellch performed a digital drive-by Wednesday at the Black Hat USA conference. Their target: an Apple Computer Inc. MacBook."  The researchers found ways of seizing control of Windows and Linux laptops as well.

The flaw is with the wireless device drivers, not with the Mac OS per se.  "Maynor and Ellch's presentation got high marks from last year's most-talked-about Black Hat presenter, Michael Lynn, who was sued by Cisco after disclosing vulnerabilities in Cisco's Internetworking Operating System. 'That was pretty awesome,' Lynn said, as the two were mobbed by show attendees after their talk." 

I am glad I am not wireless at Black Hat.

What People Are Saying

How come you were so quick

How come you were so quick to pick up on the story of a Macbook being hacked?

Yet slow when it's been revealed as being fake? Maynor lied when he said he was using Apple's own wireless drivers and Krebs misrepresented the facts.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=15605&Page=1&pagePos=12

The basic concept of

The basic concept of information flow means , its transfer to an intended recipient with others being kept out from prying in. If information is flowing in a channel wired or wireless and people use means electronic or otherwise to break in, then it is obvious that the channel is being monitored, altered or otherwise taken control of. The nature of communication necessitates the need for security, breaking in through the security barrier and so on so where is the great SURPRISE that it can be broken into ? Does it take Black Magic to break into a wireless channel ? The nature of communication means people are trying to protect and people are trying to break into. The game is eternal. Good to be obvious to facts and not cover facts with fancy, fiction and finally white house on top

I have an 80 gig laptop

I have an 80 gig laptop harddrive with 40gigs left.

I am looking to have a two hard drive laptop but cannot find any answers.

It needs to be completed for the harddrive will freeze if a solution isn't found
E-mail gmcbride@optonline.net

Please forward information regarding this topic Thanks

GREG

If the problem lies with the

If the problem lies with the wireless device drivers, i.e. we know where the problem is, what are the manufacturers doing to prevent this?

Thanks to Aruba Networks'

Thanks to Aruba Networks' hardware at this years BlackHat users will had a much more secure experience. Including a seperation of each wireless user on the the network so they cannot "see" each other, and a search and destroy of rouge APs through a pinpoint DOS. Nice stuff

The fact that Linux is also

The fact that Linux is also vulnerable should be on the wall of shame. Linux distros accept binary-only "blob" drivers from hardware vendors and rollover and die just as easily as Windows.

Users of open source must demand specifications and documentation from hardware vendors, not buggy code running with kernel privilege.

If you're just realizing

If you're just realizing regular wireless is "sucureless" and now you'ld have to be clueless not to ... you should see how easy it is hack bluetooth. When you combine wireless and bluetooth in a mobile device you might as well paint a bullseye on your forehead. There are so many hardware flaws it doesn't matter what security protocols you're running. The manufacturers need to address this problem from the ground up. There isn't going to be a service pack to fix this problem.

The NSA already knows what

The NSA already knows what your next 3 meals are probably going to be.

So the NSA are using this

So the NSA are using this system to their advantage too as well the hackers for bad groups? Wow. Scary.

Please... The proper

Please...

The proper terminology is: "wireful"