Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: Wireless assessment
From: Mister Coffee <live4java () stormcenter net>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:22:15 -0700
rajat swarup wrote:
Hi Pen-Testers, Needed some advice from your experience: Which is the best card, antenna and GPS combination for performing wireless assessments? I have picked up the EliteConnect SMC 2532W-B, Garmin Nuvi 350. Anyone experienced any problems with this? Thanks and regards,
A bit late to respond, but here goes.There appears to be no single "best" wireless card. They each have some quirks, and, in an ideal test, you'd be able to run several combinations of OS and Card at the same time. I'm rather fond of the Proxym (Atheros) cards myself, and for years ran a Cisco card with an external antenna.
Antennas for wireless penetration are kind of a mixed bag. What are you really trying to gain? When hunting for rogue Access Points or hidden clients, directionality is important - but most directional antennas also give you a lot of gain, which is often NOT what you want. Still haven't settled on the best compromise, but I lean towards a multi-element Yagi with some attenuation to make up for the gain.
If you're looking for range, a big horn works wonders.The GPS portion is a different animal. Most GPS receivers absolutely suck indoors. We don't even bother with them when we're doing a building. That said, you want one that has an output format you can read. NMEA0183 is a good standard. You might want to look at something like a Garmin 18 (hockey puck on a USB cable) or the 72/76 series. The 72 and 76 series are designed for Marine use and put out standard NMEA0183. Magellan and others make similar units.
None of them work well indoors. Most are available over the internet for under $200. If you go with a small one, like an eTrex, make sure it can output to other devices. All the marine ones can.
Anyway, good luck! Cheers, L4J ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This list is sponsored by: Cenzic Need to secure your web apps NOW? Cenzic finds more, "real" vulnerabilities fast. Click to try it, buy it or download a solution FREE today! http://www.cenzic.com/downloads ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Wireless assessment rajat swarup (Jul 13)
- Re: Wireless assessment rajat swarup (Jul 17)
- Re: Wireless assessment Cedric Blancher (Jul 17)
- Re: Wireless assessment Mister Coffee (Jul 25)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Wireless assessment eladexposed (Jul 21)
- Re: Wireless assessment rajat swarup (Jul 17)