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WEP key finder
DarrenW - 6/6/09 at 01:46 PM

Interesting little download here. Just got a new works laptop. Trying to set up on home wireless. Couldnt find paperwork. Downloaded this key finder and it displayed it for me to enter into new lappy.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html

mr henderson - 6/6/09 at 01:53 PM

Does that mean you could use that to access the neighbours' internet too?

blakep82 - 6/6/09 at 01:53 PM

ah, seems to only find it if you'ver already typed it into you pc already? is that right?

quote:
Description
WirelessKeyView recovers all wireless network keys/passwords (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by the 'Wireless Zero Configuration' service of Windows XP and by the 'WLAN AutoConfig' service of Windows Vista. It allows you to easily save all keys to text/html/xml file, or copy a single key to the clipboard.

so can't be used to get free internet anywhere

[Edited on 6/6/09 by blakep82]

RichardK - 6/6/09 at 02:19 PM

Yep, just pulls info from the zero config service, so its machine info only.

Cheers

Rich

britishtrident - 7/6/09 at 07:39 AM

Always a good idea to stick a label with the wireless config info on the bottom of the router.

DarrenW - 8/6/09 at 02:54 PM

Yes, only useful if you have forgotten key for computer you are connected to and want to connect with another on same connection.

Ive just put a label on home router - good advice.

MikeR - 8/6/09 at 07:14 PM

heads up moment..... hacking wireless isn't hard at all.

NEVER do anything you wouldn't want anyone else to see on a wireless connection. If you know what you're doing you can put yourself in between the router and the laptop / etc and watch every byte go through ..... its really easy.

WEP hacking just takes an hour or two max to get enough data to break it. Usually it can be done far, far quicker.

and no .... i'm not going to explain how to do it - just be aware that the little browser padlock doesn't mean your safe.

David Jenkins - 8/6/09 at 08:14 PM

One of several reasons why I'll only use a wired network...

cd.thomson - 10/6/09 at 09:23 AM

i tried packet sniffing my home network with a little bit of software on my laptop at home..cracked into my wireless in 45minutes!

Good job because of where I live I'd spot the FBI van on the front garden before they'd get access

MikeRJ - 10/6/09 at 09:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeR
and no .... i'm not going to explain how to do it - just be aware that the little browser padlock doesn't mean your safe.


Actually the little browser padlock means you are pretty safe unless you have done some really stupid things like shared all your drives with full read/write access to everybody.

Cracking a WEP protected access point is easy, but cracking the 256 bit encrypted data from a browser is massively harder, and as good as impossible to the average hacker. However, if you have opened up access to your machines on your LAN, then it makes things easy for said hacker to add e.g. a key logger onto your machine which completely bypasses browser security.

Always use a password with your user account on XP, disable the guest account and only use file sharing if you know what you are doing.