Question

Wireless Web-based authentication Vs. Unsecured Wireless Network

Asked by: user23144

Hello Experts,

1. What are the abuses from Unsecured Wireless Network?

2. How secure is Web-based authentication when deployed with RADIUS, SSL (Https user login) and digital certificate issued from VeriSign ? Does it ensure good security just for HTTPS logins and nothing else ?


Thank you.

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Asked On
2009-10-04 at 15:14:02ID24784134
Tags

Wireless Security

,

WLAN

,

SSL

,

Encryption

Topics

Wireless Standards

,

Wireless Local Area Network

,

Encryption for Network Security

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: annebPosted on 2009-10-04 at 15:41:25ID: 25491404

Abuses:

1. eavesdropping your (non encrypted) network traffic
2. unauthorized access to your local network (you can use firewall rules to prevent this)
3. using your internet connection for illegal activities (is this really your problem?)

Secure authentication
 WEP authentication can be broken within 5 minutes using standard software available on the internet.
There are demonstrations some details of WPA can be broken. Network traffic can not be listened into, logon is not possible
WPA2 is not (yet) know to be breakable

 

by: annebPosted on 2009-10-04 at 16:06:53ID: 25491487

To me, your HTTPS questions seems to be a question unrelated to the wireless security question.

HTTPS has the following properties:
1. the connection is encrypted. Eavesdroppers cannot makes sense from what is being exchanged
2. the connection is based on certificates.. Some certificates are provided (signed) by trusted organisation, such as Verisign. This means the webserver administrator must obtain the certificate from the trusted organisation. These organisations normally require proof of identity and proof of ownership for a given internet domain. If you (or your browser) trusts the signing organisation, you will automatically get connected. In other cases (self signed certificates or unknown or untrusted signing organisations) the browser will popup a warning about untrusted certificates, meaning you cannot be sure of the identity of the website.

Weather you are using trusted or untrusted certificates, all HTTPS traffic is encrypted. However, the webserver knows how to decrypt the traffic. If you are connected to an unknown server, you may be sending information to an unauthorized peer.

 

by: user23144Posted on 2009-10-04 at 16:19:10ID: 25491518

Anneb,

To restate the above question:

How secure is Web-based authentication when deployed with RADIUS, SSL and digital certificate issued from VeriSign in comparison with Unsecured Wireless Network ?

Thank you.

 

by: user23144Posted on 2009-10-04 at 16:30:00ID: 25491541

The following is additional explanation to the above original question.

For example take the airport WLAN.

I purchase i voucher with my credit card, and then I login via their Web-Based authentication with SSL.

When I log-in via HTTPS i know that I am secured a that point, since my credentials that I purchased are not compromised, since HTTPS encrypts the communication.

What happens next ? Am I vulnerable to any kind of attack (eavesdropping, virus, DoS, MITM) ?

In other words, what are the risks of Web-based authentication ?

Note: We're not talking WEP, WPA, WPA2 here. No 802.1x/EAP stuff.


Thank you.

 

by: annebPosted on 2009-10-04 at 16:42:56ID: 25491574

>> How secure is Web-based authentication when deployed with RADIUS, SSL and digital certificate issued from VeriSign in comparison with Unsecured Wireless Network ?

If you logon to a website that is using SSL, you can be reasonably sure that your connection to that website is safe (cannot be listened into or used by others).
However, if that website is used to verify your wireless network acces voucher, this does not mean that all further communications over the wireless network are automatically secure. This depends on the type of encryption that is used to connect to the wireless network. If the network is open, than all non-encrypted traffic can be listened into. If de wireless network is open, I must assume that the wireless network provider uses the HTTPS connection just to exchange the voucher information securely. After this, the ISP opens the wired network behind the wireless network for traffic from your MAC-address or ip-address. Other users - having special eavesdropping software - can see your non-encrypted traffic. If you use VPN or HTTPS for other connections, they cannot make sense of it. If you type a password over a non-encrypted connection, they can see that password. Specialized users can even spoof their MAC address and start using your wireless connection.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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