Researchers crack new wireless security spec
A UNIVERSITY OF Maryland professor and his graduate student have apparently uncovered serious weaknesses in the next-generation Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) security protocol known as 802.1x.
Back to the drawing board. Security wasn’t part of the 802.11 MAC protocol, because those of us who designed it didn’t know anything about the subject, and subsequent attempts to graft it on (WEP and 802.1x) have problems. As things stand, you’re not truly secure on 802.11 unless you use an end-to-end VPN, but neither are you on a wired network, easily tapped at many points. The man-in-the-middle flaw that these folks think they’ve found isn’t a genuine flaw beause they assume a directionality of signal that’s not generally possible, but I don’t want to spoil their fun. (source: 802.11b Networking News)