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Automated wireless client penetration tool "hotspotter" released.



I would like to announce the availability of a proof of concept tool release. Hotspotter automates a method of penetration against wireless clients, independent of the encryption mechanism used. Get it at http://www.remote-exploit.org now.

Feel free to provide feedback, below you will find some further information copied from the README file.

Greetings

Max Moser


Background:
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During a wireless assessment for a customer some time ago, I discovered a strange characteristic of the Microsoft Windows XP wireless client. It was possible to bring the client from a secure EAP/TLS network to an insecure one without any warnings from the operating system. I discovered this was due to the configuration of multiple wireless profiles. One profile was established for the EAP/TLS network, and a second for the "ANY" network, using an empty
network name (SSID).

To evaluate this configuration, I established my own access point using the same SSID as the EAP/TLS network, without the privacy bit set (no encryption). Due to the configuration of the Windows XP client, I was able to force the client to switch to my network with a single deauthenticate frame; at which point the client reconnected to my "rogue" access point. The victim station did not receive a warning from the operating system to indicate they left their production network, only a small indicator for temporary wireless signal.

With this attack, I was able to force a client to leave their secure wireless
network and reconnect to my rogue network, albeit at a loss of network
connectivity. This allowed me to evaluate the host-based security of the
victim host, without the protection of the EAP/TLS network.

This behaviour seems to be fixed in Windows XP Service Pack 1. I was unable to locate any documentation in the Microsoft Knowledge Base that indicated the resolution of this flaw, but there is a remaining vulnerability that can also
be exploited based configured wireless profiles.

A Windows XP client will probe for all the preferred network names listed in the wireless client configuration during startup, powersave-wakeup and when the
driver reports signal loss for the current network name.  Many coporate
wireless users configure Windows XP with a business profile (secure network profile) and several other network names including commercial hotspots and home
networks (insecure network profiles).  Due to this configuration, it is
possible to force a client to disclose the list of configured profiles, and then establish a connection to a rogue network using one of the preferred network names. Depending on the configuration of the wireless client, the client will display a bubble message indicating it has joined a different
wireless network name.

Once the associates to the rogue network, it is possible to interact with the
client directly.  This may include port scanning the victim, exploiting
Windows-based vulnerabilities or simulating an otherwise "real" network using
faked services and intercepted DNS queries.

Note that the Apple OS X client exhibits similar behaviour, although it has not
been thoroughly tested at this time.


Automated penetration using Hotspotter
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Hotspotter was written to exploit this weakness in the Windows XP Wlan client system. Hotspotter passively monitors the network for probe request frames to identify the preferred networks of Windows XP clients, and will compare it to a supplied list of common hotspot network names. If the probed network name matches a common hotspot name, Hotspotter will act as an access point to allow the client to authenticate and associate. Once associated, Hotspotter can be configured to run a command, possibly a script to kick off a DHCP daemon and
other scanning against the new victim.