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'Evil Twin' Threat to Wireless Security

Posted by michael on from the lives-in-the-attic-and-eats-fish-heads dept.

BarryNorton writes "The BBC are currently reporting on research from Cranfield University on the ability of unscrupulous third parties to spoof wireless networking clients into believing they are connected to a 'valid base station' and compromising their passwords for Internet banking etc. Of course the rest of the connection through the Internet, even from a trusted router, is insecure in any case and such sites should be using end-to-end security like SSL. Is there, therefore, anything (other than the cute name 'evil twin') to this story?"

6 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes by lachlan76 · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you check carefully, you'll find out that your password has been sniffed, your box 0wn3d, and you have actually been connecting to 127.0.0.1 ;)

  2. Re:Airjack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Alls you need ... (from the project summary): "It is ment as a development tool for all manor of ..."

    All you need, except for an adult grasp of spelling and grammar.

  3. Linux bad guys by streepje · · Score: 2, Funny

    I watched the piece on BBC TV news this morning.

    Guy sits down, opens his laptop, starts a Microsoft OS, opens IE and calls up his bank's homepage.

    Other guy comes in, sits down, opens his laptop. He's running Linux!
    Really, Linux on a BBC news piece, wow!

    But then he starts evin twinning the Microsoft guy's wifi link. He's the Linux bad guy. :-(

    Nice one BBC.

  4. Now hold the phone... by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 2, Funny
    I object to this being called an "Evil Twin" attack.

    I prefer the term "Imposter Gateway." (Cough)

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  5. cat intercepted-passwords.txt by daveewart · · Score: 2, Funny
    When they showed this story, the 'attacker' was a BBC-stereotypical geek running some Linux-like OS. There was a close-up of him typing
    cat intercepted-passwords.txt
    in an xterm. "Ooh, *command-line*. That's evil!"
    --
    "If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe
  6. by unanamous consent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Evil twin access points must be uplit, and wear a goatee.