Penetration Testing mailing list archives

Re: Re: Wireless Pent-Test


From: "Anish" <anish () myrealbox com>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2003 12:51:52 +0100

Hi,
 you are right in a way :-), RC4 does have a weakness ,as in ,if not used rightly it would give out some extra bits of 
information.The first few bytes of RC4 has this problem ,so if discarded this could be remedied.The attack would make 
some one with a curious mind wonder ,the algorithm has been around for long ...the attack that too based on statistical 
anaylsis came to light recently :-).
  The problem with RC4 is further aggrevated in WEP having IV in clear.
regards
anish

RC4 is weak when used multiple times with a fixed >>secret key and with a few
bytes of initialization, which are sent out in >>cleartext. This is exactly
how WEP uses RC4.

The main point I was stressing is that there is >>another problem of the way
in which WEP uses RC4, which is related to poorly >>chosen or "weak" IVs,
leading to disclosure of key bits over time.




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