Hacking For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10. Wireless LANs

In This Chapter

• Understanding risks of wireless LANs

• Selecting wireless LAN hacking tools

• Hacking against wireless LANs

• Minimizing wireless network security risks

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) — specifically, the ones based on the IEEE 802.11 standard — are increasingly being deployed into both business and home networks. Next to Voice over IP (VoIP) and digital video recorders, WLANs are the neatest technology I've used in quite a while. Of course, with any new technology come security issues, and WLANs are no exception. In fact, 802.11 wireless has been the poster child for weak security and network hack attacks for several years running.

WLANs offer a ton of business value, from convenience to reduced network deployment time. Whether your organization allows wireless network access or not, testing for WLAN security vulnerabilities is critical. In this chapter, I cover some common wireless network security vulnerabilities that you should test for, and I discuss some cheap and easy countermeasures you can implement to help ensure that WLANs are not more of a risk to your organization than they're worth.

Understanding the Implications of Wireless Network Vulnerabilities

WLANs are very susceptible to hacker attacks — even more so than wired networks are (discussed in Chapter 9). They have vulnerabilities that can allow an attacker to bring your network to its knees and allow your information to be extracted right out of thin air. If your WLAN is compromised, ...