Re: Borrow a neighbor's WiFi connection and go to jail?

[coderman <coderman () gmail com>]

On 3/8/06, Gary Funck <gary () intrepid com> wrote:
> ...
> When you say "it's illegal" to sniff decrypted packets, we need to
> define *it*.

there seem to be the following points of consideration in most of the
statutes in place across the country:

(note that this applies to ISM/public bands only; if you were to do
the same in certain other frequencies even listening can get you into
trouble)

1. are you fully passive when capturing, or do you use injection to
facilitate key breakage.
2. do you capture full packet contents or just headers / meta data
3. do you share your capture dumps with others or keep them to yourself.
4. do you sell the dumps for profit or other compensation.

as far as i remember (#include <std_disclaimer>) it was fine to
capture all you wanted with monitor mode, it was fine to inspect full
packet content, and even crack WEP via statistical (and fully passive)
means and inspect private payloads.

if you gave that data to anyone else, or disclosed the contents of any
conversations, you got into legal trouble.

if you used the existence of your capture dumps to harass/extort you
also crossed into illegal territory.

i'd love for someone to find a recent and thorough analysis; i don't
think much of this has been tested in court let alone spelled out in
detail in various statutes.

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