WPA2 May Not Be So Secure After All
With WPA2 being the latest and greatest wireless security standard of course there will be people looking to hack into WPA2 protected networks for the sake of causing harm or just to see if they can do it. Fortunately there is WPA3 on the horizon but in the meantime we will have to deal with yet another potential security breach.
WPA2 makes use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and CCMP as well as pre-shared keys to keep our wireless networks secure. It was a replacement for WPA which was a replacement for WEP. Most wireless devices these days support WPA2 security and if you are on top of things you will make sure that you are using the latest and greatest security on your wireless network.
But now it seems that there is a password cracking utility out there that claims it can crack these Wi-Fi networks much easier than was thought before. And all it would take is for the software to snoop a single packet that was sent over the wireless connection. It was previously thought that it was necessary for someone to log into the wireless network in order to get the information needed to hack the password. Since the attack is “clientless” it will leave more opportunities for hackers to try and break into the router. This vulnerability applies to most routers using IEEE 802.11i/p/q/r protocols with roaming functions enabled and will enable hackers to steal pre-shared login passwords and eavesdrop on communications.
Some people in the industry have stated that while this new method can make the attack easier to conduct, brute-forcing of the password is still necessary, so if you have a strong password it will still take some effort to crack.
This discovery was made on accident while trying to look for ways to attack the new WPA3 standard