IP: Cipher attack delivers heavy blow to WLAN security

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> X-Sender: @ (Unverified)
> Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 01:18:30 -0400
> To: undisclosed-recipients:;
> From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
> Subject: Cipher attack delivers heavy blow to WLAN security
>
>
> Cipher attack delivers heavy blow to WLAN security
>
> By Patrick Mannion
> EE Times
> (08/04/01, 12:49 p.m. EST)
>
> MANHASSET, N.Y. - A new report dashes any remaining illusions that
> 802.11-based (Wi-Fi) wireless local-area networks are in any way
> secure. The paper, written by three of the world's foremost
> cryptographers, describes a devastating attack on the RC4 cipher, on
> which the WLAN wired-equivalent privacy (WEP) encryption scheme is
> based.
>
> The passive network attack takes advantage of several weaknesses in
> the key-scheduling algorithm of RC4 and allows almost anyone with a
> WLAN-enabled laptop and some readily available "promiscuous" network
> software to retrieve a network's key - thereby gaining full user
> access - in less than 15 minutes.
>
> http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010803S0082



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