[ale] wpa_supplicant on hidden SSIDs

[Alex Carver]

I know it could be discovered by a determined person, it was more about
obscurity than anything else.  Let people aim for the "2WIREnnn" SSIDs
floating around the area and skip over the blank one.  I've got MAC
filters on there, too (still not perfect but better) so I'll just leave
it up for a little while.  If I end up not using the wireless much I may
just hide the SSID again.

On 9/26/2013 08:58, JD wrote:
> An old wifi-security checklist http://blog.jdpfu.com/pages/wifi-security
> 
> Hiding SSIDs isn't really useful from a security standpoint and is known to slow
> some network devices and prevent others from working at all on the "hidden"
> network.
> 
> Any wifi sniffer **will** see the SSID, BTW.
> 
> On 09/26/2013 10:35 AM, James Sumners wrote:
>> Oops, I overlooked the key detail of "v2".
>>
>> There's really not much point to hiding the SSID. It is easy enough to
>> discover. Put a good WPA2 key on it and move on.
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>>> That list shows the WPC54G versions 1 and 3 (Broadcomm chips) but not
>>> version 2 (Texas Instrument chip).  Searching through the site brings me
>>> to this:
>>>
>>> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/acx1xx
>>>
>>> I think that means I'd need to find another card if I want to avoid
>>> ndiswrapper and hide the SSID on my AP since it doesn't appear that
>>> support is forthcoming in any short time frame.
>>>
>>> On 9/26/2013 05:33, James Sumners wrote:
>>>> According to [1], the card should be supported _without_ having to use
>>>> the ndiswrapper. You should be able to use the kernel provided b43
>>>> driver. Then you would need a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file similar to
>>>> the following:
>>>>
>>>> ~~~~
>>>> ap_scan=1
>>>>
>>>> network={
>>>>     scan_ssid=1
>>>>     ssid="HiddenSSID"
>>>>     bssid=68:7f:74:d3:a9:47
>>>>     proto=WPA
>>>>     group=CCMP
>>>>     pairwise=CCMP
>>>>     key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
>>>>     #psk="A secret key generated with wpa_passphrase"
>>>>     psk=c86cdc6991f8db814d426c404a5222ff2a957bb795bad2785e1ccd299a2278cb
>>>> }
>>>> ~~~~
>>>>
>>>> However, it still might not work. I have a Netgear WNDA3100v2 that I
>>>> tried to get working in the same situation a couple months ago. No
>>>> dice. It's the first time I've messed with wireless in Linux in
>>>> several years. I figured support would be better by now, but it's
>>>> still abysmal.
>>>>
>>>> [1] -- http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/devices?highlight=%28wpc54g%29
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>>>>> On 9/25/2013 06:05, James Sumners wrote:
>>>>>> It really depends on the card. Some lspci/lsusb details would help.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's a Linksys WPC54G version 2 (using the Texas Inst. ACX 111 chipset)
>>>>> PCMCIA card.  It worked in XP using the normal Linksys drivers (as long
>>>>> as I checked the option in the config that says connect even though the
>>>>> SSID isn't broadcast).  I picked up the ndis drivers from the install
>>>>> disk to use with ndiswrapper.
>>>>>
>>>>> If the AP is not broadcasting the SSID, debugging info on wpa_supplicant
>>>>> shows that it scans over and over again but, because it can't see the
>>>>> SSID, it skips the AP (the AP's MAC does show up in the scan list).
>>>>> Once I turn on SSID broadcast, wpa_supplicant connects.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Here's lspci -v for the specific card:
>>>>> 02:00.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless
>>>>> Interface
>>>>>         Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G v2 802.11g Wireless-G Notebook Adapter
>>>>>         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
>>>>>         Memory at 30020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
>>>>>         Memory at 30000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
>>>>>         Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
>>>>>         Kernel driver in use: ndiswrapper
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 3:59 AM, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>>>>>>> Has anyone ever gotten wpa_supplicant to connect to hidden ssids?  I
>>>>>>> just got the wireless card on the laptop installed (ndiswrapper) and was
>>>>>>> trying to connect to my AP which has broadcast disabled.  I couldn't
>>>>>>> connect no matter what I tried (ssid_scan=1, ap_scan=1 and 2).  It
>>>>>>> connects fine with broadcast enabled so the card is working.
>>>>>
>>>>> ______________
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