Is Mac address filtering sufficient for basic home wireless router security?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Is Mac address filtering sufficient for basic home wireless router security?

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#45379 1-Nov-2009 11:12

Hello to all. My iPhone doesn't play nicely with WEP security - its connection to my wireless router drops in and out. It works perfectly if I disable encryption on my router. I would obviously like some protection to keep hackers/thieves out. Is MAC address filtering sufficient as basic home wireless router protection? (I plan to limit access to my router to the iPhone only). My understanding is that "spoofing" a MAC address is easy enough to do. How likely is it that someone could be bothered? If they were able to spoof, presumably all they would be able to do is steal my bandwidth?

Comments are welcome.

nzbnw

2371 posts

Uber Geek

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Spark NZ

#268975 1-Nov-2009 11:27

Does your router not support WPA?

nzbnw

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itxtme

2053 posts

Uber Geek

#268996 1-Nov-2009 13:27

WPA is the standard now and you should see if your router supports it! If you were going to do what you say generally it would be quite safe as yes MAC spoofing is easy but the users would have to find out what MAC addresses you have in you OK list (impossible really).

Hacking wireless routers not encrypted is possible but happens close to 0% in NZ. Most people that war drive will look for routers that have no security on them!!

Damager

2125 posts

Uber Geek

#269010 1-Nov-2009 14:01

Perhaps you could also change the default SSID and then disable it, on top of your MAC filtering.

I asked my neighbours across the road who can pick up my network to see if they can hack it.. No go.

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automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#269017 1-Nov-2009 14:20

Thanks, have changed to EPA and all good.

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#269018 1-Nov-2009 14:21

That should read EPA.

automaton

66 posts

Master Geek

#269019 1-Nov-2009 14:21

Wpa

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

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#269047 1-Nov-2009 15:52

itxtme: WPA is the standard now and you should see if your router supports it! If you were going to do what you say generally it would be quite safe as yes MAC spoofing is easy but the users would have to find out what MAC addresses you have in you OK list (impossible really).

Hacking wireless routers not encrypted is possible but happens close to 0% in NZ. Most people that war drive will look for routers that have no security on them!!

That's not true is it? Can't the packets be inspected with a wireless sniffer to determine authorised MACs/unencrypted data?

itxtme

2053 posts

Uber Geek

#269050 1-Nov-2009 16:00

bazzer:
itxtme: WPA is the standard now and you should see if your router supports it! If you were going to do what you say generally it would be quite safe as yes MAC spoofing is easy but the users would have to find out what MAC addresses you have in you OK list (impossible really).

Hacking wireless routers not encrypted is possible but happens close to 0% in NZ. Most people that war drive will look for routers that have no security on them!!

That's not true is it? Can't the packets be inspected with a wireless sniffer to determine authorised MACs/unencrypted data?

bazzer

3438 posts

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#269080 1-Nov-2009 18:04

itxtme:
bazzer:
itxtme: WPA is the standard now and you should see if your router supports it! If you were going to do what you say generally it would be quite safe as yes MAC spoofing is easy but the users would have to find out what MAC addresses you have in you OK list (impossible really).

Hacking wireless routers not encrypted is possible but happens close to 0% in NZ. Most people that war drive will look for routers that have no security on them!!

That's not true is it? Can't the packets be inspected with a wireless sniffer to determine authorised MACs/unencrypted data?

You don't say?

itxtme

2053 posts

Uber Geek

#269155 2-Nov-2009 07:45

thanks for that, now point out the literature where this happens regularly?

rossmnz

507 posts

Ultimate Geek

#269176 2-Nov-2009 09:36

As stated above, MAC address filtering with a hidden SSID "can" be broken if you have to tools to do so.

Whether anyone would have the motivation to bother to try and crack your home network is the main question.

Your general,run of the mill pimply 15 year old wouldnt have the knowledge and those who do have the knowledge and are inclined to misue that knowledge would probably be trying to crack something worthwhile!

In short, MAC address filtering with hidden SSID is enough in NZ, and its what i use!

The force is strong with this one!

Reon

69 posts

Master Geek

#269231 2-Nov-2009 11:38

Here's a link I always point people to when discussing Wireless security

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=43

bazzer

3438 posts

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#269239 2-Nov-2009 11:55

itxtme: thanks for that, now point out the literature where this happens regularly?

All I'm saying is that you stated it's hard (impossible really) to find the MAC address to spoof, but in fact it's more or less trivial. Whether or not it is commonplace is beside my point. The fact that it's so easy to defeat makes me uncomfortable in using or recommending it. Ditto for hiding SSID.

Furthermore, all traffic from the router will be subject to interception if that's a concern to you, so it's not just stealing bandwidth. Moral of the story, encrypt your router!

Ragnor

8085 posts

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#269265 2-Nov-2009 13:37

Best practice is:

WPA2 with AES encryption

Also make sure that your pre shared key (aka password) is at least 10+ digits long and not something that can be broken with a dictionary of common words attack (ie: use something alphanumeric and mixed case and mixed characters).

If you have some older devices with a network adapaters that do not support WPA2 then you can use WPA (WPA1) with AES encryption.

If you have a device that doesn't do AES encryption you should consider replacing it (it's like $20 for a USB wireless that can do WPA2 and AES) as TKIP encryption can be cracked in under 1min.