Use A Cat To Hack Your Neighbor’s Wi-Fi

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
If you see a cat wandering around your neighborhood, it is probably a WarKitteh hacking unprotected Wi-Fi networks. Wait. What?

The advent of Wi-Fi brought “wardriving,” putting an antenna in a car and cruising a city to suss out weak and unprotected Wi-Fi networks. This weekend at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas, Bransfield will debut the next logical step: The “WarKitteh” collar, a device he built for less than $100 that turns any outdoor cat into a Wifi-sniffing hacker accomplice.
 
More likely it's a stray tom that wants to transfer a data packet to an already open port.
 
So it is a cat that just logs GPS coordinates of Wifi access points. They then just look for ones that are unsecured or use WEP or some bad encryption...

Was anyone under the impression that it would be hard to find an unsecured or poorly router in a well populated area?
 
So wouldn't the best solution to this be to default all routers to a protected state that requires a specific, and, if necessary, complicated effort to disable ... the only reason that so many routers and access points aren't protected is that is usually their default state (that no one ever changes it) ... they are the blinking VCR clock of the 2000's ;)
 
Come on, war kitteh, the best named product of the year...
 
So wouldn't the best solution to this be to default all routers to a protected state that requires a specific, and, if necessary, complicated effort to disable ... the only reason that so many routers and access points aren't protected is that is usually their default state (that no one ever changes it) ... they are the blinking VCR clock of the 2000's ;)

Then you have routers all over the place running the default Wifi password. People are dumb.
 
Then you have routers all over the place running the default Wifi password. People are dumb.

Unless you required something like an activation code or something, which would force the person to interact with the manufacturer by phone or email, it isn't perfect but it isn't that extraordinary either ... another solution (which would be a little more work for the manufacturer) would be for them to set a custom password before shipping it and include it in the box
 
Bring in on, I can't wait to dress my cat for WAR!

Unless you required something like an activation code or something, which would force the person to interact with the manufacturer by phone or email, it isn't perfect but it isn't that extraordinary either ... another solution (which would be a little more work for the manufacturer) would be for them to set a custom password before shipping it and include it in the box

Most new routers come with a password, which is usually contained in the sticker affixed to the bottom.
 
Then you have routers all over the place running the default Wifi password. People are dumb.

Not just dumb also lazy.

I've told so many people that I know to get off wep and use a better password and they don't change it because it will be too difficult to remember.

And I also say tell that to the cops when they come knocking on your door for someone downloading child porn on your connection.
 
I really wanted to set up my home wi-fi network to require a custom username+password. I tried in the past, but couldn't. Does anyone know any guide? I have a 24/7 server that could run whatever is needed for this.
 
A lot of ISPs use WEP by default and name the SID the same as the password. I spent some time fixing some family member networks back last fall when I was home because they were all set up that way.
 
I used to have a Siamese called Coco!

This is a pretty genius and humorous hack. We need to fit these on all the stray cats and make them act as a mesh network. :p
 
PSA: Isolate your wireless traffic from the LAN

This, I find it crazy some people put it all on the same vlan. :eek:

If somone hacks my wifi the worse thing they can do is change my indoor temperature... which I guess, is pretty bad. :D But they wont have access to my data or anything.
 
A lot of ISPs use WEP by default and name the SID the same as the password. I spent some time fixing some family member networks back last fall when I was home because they were all set up that way.

Although most people are too cheap I never use my ISP router as my WiFi router ... I always add a separate WiFi router ... currently I have two wifi units going ... personal and company one ... since I have to work from home a lot, the company wifi point lets me avoid the trouble of VPNing into the company network (as it is a direct access point the same as would be available at a site using wifi)
 
This thread is awesome.

I hope someone makes a War Kitteh meme picture (I suck at art so don't ask me to do it)
 
This, I find it crazy some people put it all on the same vlan. :eek:

If somone hacks my wifi the worse thing they can do is change my indoor temperature... which I guess, is pretty bad. :D But they wont have access to my data or anything.

This is a great idea.

Have any easy to follow guides for this that I can email to say a family member that they can follow?
 
This is a great idea.

Have any easy to follow guides for this that I can email to say a family member that they can follow?

What? Average Joe citizen can't change their networks vlan setup to isolate wireless traffic? Unpossible, everyone knows what a vlan is and the skills to build the routes to make them talk. Let alone have the hardware that is even capable of this feature.

I love internet warriors who think the one thing they know is what everyone should do. 95% of home users with wireless want one thing, easy access to files and internet from their lap watching TV.
 
Hmmm. I wonder if you could make it small enough and cheap enough to put on birds (non-migratory types)? War Pigeons, anyone?
 
I really wanted to set up my home wi-fi network to require a custom username+password. I tried in the past, but couldn't. Does anyone know any guide? I have a 24/7 server that could run whatever is needed for this.

usernames are NOT security devices. There is no real need for a custom user, admin is fine if you have a properly strong password and auto-block after X attempts.
 
Back
Top