On Sun, 2011-05-22 at 08:40 -0700, JD wrote: > I was referring to the use of MAC filtering which is > soundly defeated by the transmission of the MAC > in the clear. So, MAC filtering is absolutely useless > as a security measure. > If I turn off my machine, the hacker has my MAC, and > will have 1 less thing to worry about getting. > > My reliance is then totally on wpa2-psk/aes and a > well chosen 63 byte pass-phrase. Yay! He's got it... You do realise what the MAC is for? It's the name of that particular hardware interface, it's address, it's location... So that when data goes out on the wire, that's where it's intended for. As far as network switches and routers go, it's the way of saying data for IP 192.168.1.whatever goes to/through MAC xx:yy:zz:etc. It's the MAC it's using. It's a vital part of basic networking, whether encrypted or not, it can't be hidden from view. Filtering using it can only ever be slightly effective. Likewise with filtering by IP. Both are readily seen on a network, even if the data can't be read. And both are easily changed. Encryption, on the other hand, involves co-relating pseudo-random keys on both half of the connection. Where the key is a computation against a pass-phrase, and requires both sides to use the same pass phrase, and maths. A third party is going to have one hell of a time trying to fake their way into that, unless the encryption scheme is crap (e.g. WEP and WPA are useless). Usually, well encrypted connections are hacked by: Guessing stupidly chosen passwords or stealing them (copying written notes, implanting trojans, asking someone to login to something and hoping they'll use the same password). The latter being dead easy. Lots of people use the same password for everything. And how often do you see some website that asks you to login using your Hotmail address and password? And people do, without giving any thought about it. -- [tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686 Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists. -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
