WPA2 Security Hole 196. Should I worry about my home network?

jjthomas · 01-04-2011, 11:10 PM

I have home network consisting of a Linksys WRT54GL flashed with DD-WRT v24-sp2; an HP C6180 PhotoSmart printer; a Compaq R3000 running Linux Mint; and a PS3, all connected via Wifi WPA2 to my Linksys..

Do I really need to worry about this Hole 196? The laptop connects to a Slackware 13.1 computer via the router; the Slack PC is connected via a cable to the router. The hard disks on the Slackware PC and Laptop are both encrypted, so picking up my computers and walking out the door is not an issue. But I am worried about someone exploiting this security hole. Should I be? There is a lot of personal information exchanged between the Mint and Slack computers via WiFi. Is it possible to decipher my information

I seem to recall an issue with WEP that someone could monitor my traffic and come up with my keys. Is this possible with WPA2? I download videos from Netflix, so I know there is a lot of traffic that could be monitored.

I started looking at setting up a VPN connection between the Linux and Slack PC's, but not I am not sure if it is really necessary.

Thank you.

-JJ

win32sux · 01-05-2011, 12:36 AM

If you read this FAQ you'll see this vulnerability is not about a bad guy cracking your keys (unlike the famous WEP weakness you've made reference to in your post). It's about what he/she can do with the required authorization (whether legitimate or illegitimate). As for worrying about it, well, that's subjective. I'd say that it wouldn't hurt to do what you can in order to mitigate the additional vulnerabilities if one of the hosts on your WLAN gets cracked. The FAQ I linked has some suggestions.

jjthomas · 01-05-2011, 07:28 AM

Thank you for the FAQ. That helps.

If I understand all this correctly, the WPA2 Security Hole 196 is a threat once someone gains access to my WiFi, either through brute force attack guessing my password, or I give them the password. So the biggest part of the solution is to use a strong password.

Thank you, again.

-JJ

veezee · 01-10-2011, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjthomas

Thank you for the FAQ. That helps.

If I understand all this correctly, the WPA2 Security Hole 196 is a threat once someone gains access to my WiFi, either through brute force attack guessing my password, or I give them the password. So the biggest part of the solution is to use a strong password.

Thank you, again.

-JJ

Along with a strong password (using a random 63 key such as mnvVrRSbcyFDDULNB8GlM\Z6n#bcY3M0q7eWY++/uCC,gYLrgbS\W$,9sYkFb&P) I would recommend using a non default SSID.