[ale] [OT] WEP auth modes

[Synco Gibraldter]

hey... here's the difference:

open system means that, even without the correct key, the user can
transfer data with the access point or another machine on the network...
if you were to send out an arp flood to identify machines in the area, you
could do this successfully without a key.  the routing isn't handled
without a key, so actual connectivity isn't possible without the key.

shared key means that absolutely no communication is possible without the
key, so if you're not testing or debugging and you only want people with
the key to find and use your wlan, then use this mode.

how are they the same?  they're both ridiculously insecure and in either
one of these modes, wep can be broken very very very quickly.  wep is
basically a big waste of time and i'd advise you to use a vpn.  if you
want more information, just run a google search for something like "wep
insecurity" and you'll have a few days worth of reading.


good luck.


On Sun, 2 Mar 2003, Joe wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> Can some security-savvy person explain the difference between "shared key" and
> "open system" authentication modes in WEP? Is one to be prefferred over the
> other? I've found that FreeBSD 4.6 won't permit me to use "shared key" mode.
> (It appears to be a bug in the FreeBSD Prism2 driver.)
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- Joe Knapka
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>

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