Is it safe to connect to "unknown" SSID?

[macgyver]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi,

I'm a newbie to wifi.

Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?

My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown SSID
be able to hack into my laptop?

--
Regards,

MacGyver.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"MacGyver" <MacGyver.smartypants@Gmail.com> wrote in
news:d3lhej$lms$1@domitilla.aioe.org:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie to wifi.
>
> Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?
>
> My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown
> SSID be able to hack into my laptop?


it depends.

got any shared drives or folders?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

MacGyver wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm a newbie to wifi.
>
>Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?
>
>My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown SSID
>be able to hack into my laptop?
>
>
>
I doubt it is ever really 'safe' to connect to anything.

When connecting wirelessly, you lose the protection you probably have in
a normal lan provided by your router's NAT and perhaps the router's
firewall. If you are sharing files, you could be vulnerable. If you are
running any open ports on your system supporting connections to servers,
you could be vulnerable [ for example, if you are running a database
application or a web server].

In the most common instance, not sharing folders is probably sufficient.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

> My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown SSID
> be able to hack into my laptop?

Not necessarily hack through a firewall, but definitely be able to
see everything you're sending out - credit card numbers, etc.

WPA or WEP both can be cracked from outside the network.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=370636&rl=1
http://wepcrack.sourceforge.net/

Here, you'd have to wait for WPA2 before you can assume some sort of
wireless security (for your own network) and even then it won't help you
if you're using someone else's network (they can still see everything
you're doing).

But realistically, because the owner of the wireless network you're
hopping onto is inside his own network, he's got 100% access to every
bit you're sending across - just think, no security at all!

Once he's scanned your notebook and has gathered enough information
to see if there exists a vunerability in the firewall/OS you're using,
then he can immediately put that to use.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Good Man" <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9638691C27946sonicyouth@216.196.97.131...
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 09:20:02 -0500

"MacGyver" <MacGyver.smartypants@Gmail.com> wrote in
news:d3lhej$lms$1@domitilla.aioe.org:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie to wifi.
>
> Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?
>
> My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown
> SSID be able to hack into my laptop?


it depends.

got any shared drives or folders?

Don't forget that many Windows 2000 & XP home users never bothered to
set a password for Administrator. Thus someone hacking into is their
first guess. And an Administrator has full rights, regardless what is
shared or not.


Cheers!


___________________________________________
Bill (using a HP AMD 1.2GHZ & Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within Word 2000

 

[macgyver]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I do not have any shared files or folders.

Are you suggesting that it is safer if I create another XP account (just for
websurfing) for connecting to the unknown SSID in my neighbourhood?

I am currently using only one XP account for everything without any password
setting.

--
Regards,

MacGyver.



"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message
news:M4y7e.1088$JJ2.460@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...

"Good Man" <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9638691C27946sonicyouth@216.196.97.131...
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 09:20:02 -0500

"MacGyver" <MacGyver.smartypants@Gmail.com> wrote in
news:d3lhej$lms$1@domitilla.aioe.org:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie to wifi.
>
> Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?
>
> My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown
> SSID be able to hack into my laptop?


it depends.

got any shared drives or folders?

Don't forget that many Windows 2000 & XP home users never bothered to
set a password for Administrator. Thus someone hacking into is their
first guess. And an Administrator has full rights, regardless what is
shared or not.


Cheers!


___________________________________________
Bill (using a HP AMD 1.2GHZ & Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within Word 2000

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Unless you sign on with the user named Administrator, there will be at
least two users under Windows 2000 and XP. And you can't delete the
Administrator user (although you can rename it to something else). So
there should be at least two users that should have a password set. And
I'd renamed the Administrator user name as extra precaution. Well maybe
Windows XP Home Edition doesn't have a user named Administrator. Someone
tell me for sure.

So any user with administrators rights (I assume that is you and the
Administrator) can access anything on your computer if they get the user
name and password right. And regardless if anything is being shared or
not. For example, once someone from the outside logs on to one of the
administrator accounts. All they have to do to access the whole C drive
is to type something like this:

\\computername\c$

Someone figured out how to disable these administrative shares. As I
found it on the Internet not long ago. But to be honest, it shouldn't
matter. As if they are logged on to an admininistator account, you are
in danger enough at this point anyway.

Also don't forget, not only do you have to worry about this unknown
SSID. But a hacker with a packet sniffer can see everything you are
doing. Passwords being transmitted and the like. And using WEP for
security can be cracked in 6 hours or less. WPA is much harder to crack.
And in the latter case, it could take someone months to do so. Although
if you change the passphrase often enough, a home wireless system still
should be pretty safe.



Cheers!


___________________________________________
Bill (using a HP AMD 1.2GHZ & Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within Word 2000



"MacGyver" <MacGyver.smartypants@Gmail.com> wrote in message news:d3mjs6$8nl$1@domitilla.aioe.org...
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:30:03 +0100

I do not have any shared files or folders.

Are you suggesting that it is safer if I create another XP account (just for
websurfing) for connecting to the unknown SSID in my neighbourhood?

I am currently using only one XP account for everything without any password
setting.

--
Regards,

MacGyver.



"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message
news:M4y7e.1088$JJ2.460@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...

"Good Man" <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9638691C27946sonicyouth@216.196.97.131...
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 09:20:02 -0500

"MacGyver" <MacGyver.smartypants@Gmail.com> wrote in
news:d3lhej$lms$1@domitilla.aioe.org:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie to wifi.
>
> Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?
>
> My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown
> SSID be able to hack into my laptop?


it depends.

got any shared drives or folders?

Don't forget that many Windows 2000 & XP home users never bothered to
set a password for Administrator. Thus someone hacking into is their
first guess. And an Administrator has full rights, regardless what is
shared or not.


Cheers!


___________________________________________
Bill (using a HP AMD 1.2GHZ & Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within Word 2000

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

MacGyver wrote:

> I do not have any shared files or folders.
>
> Are you suggesting that it is safer if I create another XP account (just
> for websurfing) for connecting to the unknown SSID in my neighbourhood?
>
> I am currently using only one XP account for everything without any
> password setting.

As a general principle you're safer if you create an account that has the
minium privilege necessary to do what you need to do and use that for your
web access.
>

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"David Chien" <chiendh@uci.edu> wrote in message
news:d3msa9$ipr$1@news.service.uci.edu...
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:54:04 -0700

> My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown
> SSID be able to hack into my laptop?

Not necessarily hack through a firewall, but definitely be able to
see everything you're sending out - credit card numbers, etc.

Hi David... I haven't found a single way to hack into my own computers
on a network if they are using ZoneAlarm (the free version) and you
don't have the network set for a trusted zone. As ZoneAlarm blocks all
requests and the computer can be totally setup with poor or no passwords
(and all security settings all wrong) and nobody is getting in. Is this
your experience as well?

Also you can capture packets not connected to anything. As radio waves
broadcast everything, whether encoded or not. Although I don't know how
to do this yet. Although if they get on my network, they are watchable.
Ethereal is the tool that I mainly use.

WPA or WEP both can be cracked from outside the network.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=370636&rl=1
http://wepcrack.sourceforge.net/

Very interesting reading. And I learned more than I had before. But they
is nothing there that convinces me WPA is unsecured if you use complex
passwords (passphrases). As it will still take months for a dedicated
hacker 24/7 to crack. Although if you change the passphrase often
enough, the hacker doesn't have a chance.

Here, you'd have to wait for WPA2 before you can assume some sort
of wireless security (for your own network) and even then it won't
help you if you're using someone else's network (they can still see
everything you're doing).

WPA is still very secure, if you know what you are doing. In my humble
opinion anyway. I got the same impression from reading all of the pages
of that URL as well.

But realistically, because the owner of the wireless network you're
hopping onto is inside his own network, he's got 100% access to
every bit you're sending across - just think, no security at all!

So true. Although the average user doesn't have a clue how to do so.

Once he's scanned your notebook and has gathered enough information
to see if there exists a vunerability in the firewall/OS you're
using, then he can immediately put that to use.

Also very true.



Cheers!


___________________________________________
Bill (using a HP AMD 1.2GHZ & Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within Word 2000

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"MacGyver" <MacGyver.smartypants@Gmail.com> wrote:
>Is it safe to connect to an unknown SSID?

Heck, with Windoze machines it's not even 'safe' to connect to the
Internet. 8*|

>My laptop has a firewall and anti-virus, will the owner of the unknown SSID
>be able to hack into my laptop?

Maybe, depends on the details of which firewall and AV software, if
there are any {known,unknown} exploits, and the competence of the guy
you are stealing internet access from. At the very least he can see
your traffic, as others have mentioned...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I haven't found any problems with ZoneAlarm running on PCs and
encountered any intrusions. Good product. Another is Sygate Personal
Firewall. Both are recommended for any PC user - make sure you set all
of the security settings to their highest/most restrictive settings to
ensure that you get the full protection of these firewalls.

Keep in mind that this is only one step to secure a PC.

If you use Internet Explorer, you can be sure that you've just opened up
your entire computer to more exploits even with a firewall. Best bet
here is to make sure you have an alternative web browser installed and
in use - Opera, Firefox, Mozilla. Because they're not IE, you don't get
99%of the IE problems.

Same goes with email - don't use Outlook express or Outlook - use
Mozilla, Eudora, etc. instead.

Here, running Mozilla for years, no problems browsing anything or
opening up any emails because it simply doesn't fall to the standard
IE/Outlook exploits. You can sit back and laugh at your neighboors that
get infected the next IE/Outlook bug goes out while you're safe surfing
with an alternative.

---

Anyways, most home owners of Wifi nodes are too clueless to even bother
monitoring anything, so most likely, you'll be fine surfing over another
net w/o a problem.

find local open wifis at wifimaps.com -> type in your zip code, click on
any 'map' link in the results, and watch your jaw drop as you see how
many clueless newbies are out there around you.