Users of Windows laptops with Wi-Fi capabilities may be opening their hard drives up to snoopers, according to a security researcher. A bug in the way Windows manages wireless network connections means that people using their laptops in public places are frequently giving anyone in the area the means to invade their systems, according to Mark Loveless of Nomad Mobile Research Centre (NMRC).
When a laptop has been connected to an ad-hoc network it can later begin advertising that ad-hoc network's SSID identifier without the user's knowledge, giving those nearby the opportunity to carry out an attack, according to Loveless.
He called the bug a "configuration error" rather than a security vulnerability, but gave it a severity rating of "High (albeit lame)."
"In theory all kinds of information could be siphoned off, but that depends on either a secondary vulnerability (such as MS05-039 patch not being applied), a lack of a personal firewall, or open shares. Granted, when I found a machine vulnerable to the wireless flaw, I usually found one of those secondary issues as well, but the vast majority of laptops were not vulnerable to the wireless flaw in the first place," he said.
While the bug sounds unlikely in theory, in practice Loveless frequently came across vulnerable laptops in airports and on planes. "While visiting Charlotte, North Carolina... - walking the terminal during massive East Coast rain delays with most flights delayed by a couple of hours - I counted no less than 62 ad-hoc devices," he said in an advisory. "A conservative estimate would put half of those ad-hoc devices at risk." On four domestic U.S. flights, he counted 11 vulnerable laptops.
When a laptop has been connected to an ad-hoc network it can later begin advertising that ad-hoc network's SSID identifier without the user's knowledge, giving those nearby the opportunity to carry out an attack, according to Loveless.
He called the bug a "configuration error" rather than a security vulnerability, but gave it a severity rating of "High (albeit lame)."
"In theory all kinds of information could be siphoned off, but that depends on either a secondary vulnerability (such as MS05-039 patch not being applied), a lack of a personal firewall, or open shares. Granted, when I found a machine vulnerable to the wireless flaw, I usually found one of those secondary issues as well, but the vast majority of laptops were not vulnerable to the wireless flaw in the first place," he said.
While the bug sounds unlikely in theory, in practice Loveless frequently came across vulnerable laptops in airports and on planes. "While visiting Charlotte, North Carolina... - walking the terminal during massive East Coast rain delays with most flights delayed by a couple of hours - I counted no less than 62 ad-hoc devices," he said in an advisory. "A conservative estimate would put half of those ad-hoc devices at risk." On four domestic U.S. flights, he counted 11 vulnerable laptops.
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