[ISN] Security UPDATE -- A Peek into the Future of Wi-Fi Security -- September 7, 2005

Thu Sep 8 02:39:00 EDT 2005

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1. In Focus: A Peek into the Future of Wi-Fi Security 

2. Security News and Features
   - Recent Security Vulnerabilities
   - Another IE Flaw Surfaces 
   - Long Registry Keys Can Help Hide Malware 

3. Security Toolkit
   - Security Matters Blog
   - FAQ
   - Security Forum Featured Thread

4. New and Improved
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==== 1. In Focus: A Peek into the Future of Wi-Fi Security ====
   by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity / net

Today, Wi-Fi networks are secured by using a number of methods. Those 
methods protect Access Points (APs) and clients from a wide variety of 
attacks: connection hijacking, unauthorized connections to legitimate 
APs, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, address spoofing, attempts at 
network bridging, rogue APs, man-in-the-middle attacks, and the list 
goes on. 

Any sort of wireless communication is more difficult to defend than a 
wired network. One main reason is that radio waves propagate. Unless 
your network has extremely sophisticated transmitters, antennas, and 
wave propagation limiters, controlling the extent to which your waves 
are traveling is very difficult. If intruders can pick up your Wi-Fi 
signals, they have some amount of access to the communication taking 
place. But encryption helps protect the data being transmitted, and AP 
and client security systems help prevent intrusion and service 
disruption. 

A number of security solutions are designed specifically to protect 
wireless networks, and they work reasonably well, but there is still 
room for improvement. In the near future, we'll see enhancements and 
features added to many of those solutions, and we'll undoubtedly see 
new solutions come to the marketplace. 

At the recent Intel Developer Forum, Justin Rattner, Intel senior 
fellow and director of Intel's Corporate Technology Group, demonstrated 
some interesting new wireless networking technology that could help 
improve security. The technology involves wireless devices that can 
become aware of a person's physical location, similar to GPS technology 
but without the need for orbiting satellites. The company said that its 
client location technology is currently accurate to within a 1-meter 
radius. 

In essence, an AP uses the new technology to determine a client's 
location by timing the transmission of data to and from the client. 
Because the rate of travel can be known, the distance between APs and 
clients can be calculated. 

AP antennas can play a significant role in the refinement of client 
location systems because the antennas can be designed to transmit 
signals within a specific area in a given direction. A specially 
designed AP antenna could allow an AP to determine where a client is 
located relative to the AP's position. I suspect that Intel's 
technology takes advantage of a somewhat unique antenna design as 
compared to typical AP antennas in use today. 

The security of wireless networks could be greatly improved by using 
client location awareness. In practice, an AP could be configured to 
allow connections only from devices that are within 30 feet. Similarly, 
wireless Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) could be set to detect any 
client systems attempting communication from farther away than a 
predefined distance from the AP. 

Of course the application of such technology isn't limited to enhanced 
security. During his demonstration, Rattner showed how he could be 
tracked in an on-stage mock-up of a home. As he moved from place to 
place, wireless transmission of a video broadcast was switched to the 
screen closest to him. However, to security administrators, this peek 
into the near future is most interesting because of the significant 
implications for improved network security. 

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==== 2. Security News and Features ====

Recent Security Vulnerabilities
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Alerts, which inform you about recently discovered security 
vulnerabilities. You can also find information about these 
discoveries at
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Another IE Flaw Surfaces 
   Tom Ferris reported a new flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 
6.0 on fully patched Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) systems. While 
Ferris offered few details about the problem on his Web site, the 
vulnerability reportedly could allow a remote intruder to install 
remote code and completely take over an affected system.
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Long Registry Keys Can Help Hide Malware 
   Last week, an interesting discovery was made regarding the Windows 
registry. Apparently, long keys can't be viewed or deleted by using 
regedit or many third-party tools designed to detect malware. Registry 
keys that exceed 254 characters in length are basically invisible 
unless the tool being used to read the registry is designed to 
accommodate longer keys.
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==== 3. Security Toolkit ==== 

Security Matters Blog: Bam! Google Hacking Just Got Kicked Up a Notch 
   by Mark Joseph Edwards, http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=12DE2:4FB69

If Emeril Lagasse were a hacker, he'd probably be using the new Google 
mining toolset, Massive Enumeration Tool (MET). Written in the Python 
scripting language, MET is a collection of scripts designed to mine 
data from the gigantic databases stored by Google's search engine.
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FAQ
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Q: How can I set the default domain user profile?

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Security Forum Featured Thread: Rights Required to Allow Changing 
Directory Ownership
   A forum participant writes that he's trying to use xcacls.vbs to 
allow his Help desk staff to change the owner on a user's home 
directory when it's initially created. The command-line options he uses 
(listed in the Security Forum post) work fine under his account, which 
has Domain Admin rights, but the Help desk technicians receive an error 
when they run the command with the same options. He's tried giving the 
Help desk technicians "Take ownership" and "Restore files" rights on 
the file server, but that doesn't fix the problem. If you can help, 
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