WEP Broken Even Worse

collin.m writes in with news of results out of Darmstadt. Erik Tews and others there have demonstrated how to recover a 104-bit WEP key in under a minute, requiring the capture of fewer than 10% the number of packets the previous best method called for. The paper is here (PDF). Quoting: "We were able to extend Klein's attack and optimize it for usage against WEP. Using our version, it is possible to recover a 104 bit WEP key with probability 50% using just 40,000 captured packets... for 85,000 data packets [the success probability is] about 95%... 40,000 packets can be captured in less than one minute under good condition. The actual computation takes about 3 seconds and 3 MB main memory on a Pentium-M 1.7 GHz..."

Comments

Can ARC4 be used properly at all?

[Myria]

Can ARC4 be used securely at all? Or are WEP's failings its own fault?

On a somewhat related note, I'm annoyed that wireless encryption was implemented in hardware. Nintendo DS's wireless is worthless to me since the encryption system can't be upgraded.

Re:Who even still users WEP?

[Technician]

No. Even a cursory glance at your laptop next time you are in a commercial parking lot will tell you that (or at an apartment complex).

No. We use some prety antique hardware (laptop with embedded 11b no WPA). We are fairly remote so the number of potential attackers is pretty slim. To discourage them, DHCP is truned on. The DHCP range is blocked from the gateway by access control. To get a leachable connection, you will need to spoof a MAC address, use a fixed IP address, and hope we are not online at the moment. A conflict will be noticed.

We don't need a hack proof wireless. We just need to be more difficult than our neighbors.