nanog mailing list archives

Re: Comcast storing WiFi passwords in cleartext?


From: "Valdis Klētnieks" <valdis.kletnieks () vt edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2019 00:22:35 -0400

On Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:04:22 -0700, William Herrin said:

I take no position on what risk the comcast wifi passwords issue carries.
I'm posting only to point out that an absolutist model which says, "stuff
of type X must always be encrypted," is probably not well tuned to the
customer's actual security needs.

I'm willing to bet that for a significant percentage of people who do at least
some of their work at home, but aren't router-savvy, the risks of a borked
router preventing them from working from home are a bigger issue than the
relatively low risk of a database compromise leading to a miscreant getting
hold of their wireless password and using their access point as free wifi.

Security decisions that are "obvious" when only security-minded and technically
clued people are involved become a lot less obvious when 95% of the people
involved are named Joe Q. Sixpack.


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