How secure are un-ecnrypted wireless networks

jeanluca · Apprentice Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Posts: 179

Hi All

Somthing I would like to know a little bit more about is wireless networks security. When I do:
> iwlist eth1 scanning
I often see networks with encryption: off
But in most cases I cannot connect to those networks........

The only thing I can think of is that those APs use MAC identification, right ?
I'm intrested in what ways are available to sniff those un-encrypted networks, which I think is not very easy because you're not connected to those network. For example, ethereal, only sniffs traffic from the network the interface is connected to. So how to sniff traffic from networks with their encryption off ?

Thanks
Luca

dambacher · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:30 pm Post subject:

this may be because the acces point is programmed to only talk to computers on hist list of known mac adresses.
Or because you can only connect through this ap if you use something like openvpn (including encryption.-)

jeanluca · Apprentice Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Posts: 179

If I know which mac addresses are used, by sniffing the un-encrypted network, I can change mine and simply connect!

Luca