WarDriving: Drive, Detect, Defend, A Guide to Wireless Security [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Chris Hurley (Author), Michael Puchol (Author), Russ Rogers (Author), Frank Thornton (Author) "Wireless networks have become a way of life in the past two years..." (more)
Key Phrases: worldwide wardrive, kismet data, serial data cable, Frequently Asked Questions, File Edit View Terminal Go Help, Solutions Fast Track (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The term WarDriving originates from WarDialing, a term introduced to the public by Matthew Broderick's character, David Lightman, in the 1983 movie "WarGames." WarDialing is the practice of using a modem attached to a computer to dial an entire exchange of telephone numbers to locate any computers with modems attached to them. WarDriving employs the same concept, although it is updated to a more current technology; wireless networks. A WarDriver drives around a geographical location to determine all of the wireless access points in that area. Once these access points are discovered, a WarDriver uses a software program or Web site to map the results of his efforts. Based on these results, a statistical analysis is performed. This statistical analysis can be of one drive, one area, or a general overview of all wireless networks. WarDriving became more well known when the process was automated by Peter Shipley, a computer security consultant in Berkeley, California. During the fall of 2000, Shipley conducted an 18-month survey of wireless networks in Berkeley, California and reported his results at the annual DefCon hacker conference in July of 2001. This presentation, designed to raise awareness of the insecurity of wireless networks that were deployed at that time, laid the groundwork for the true WarDriver.

From the Publisher
"Wardriving has brought some of the top people in the wireless industry together to put together a truly informative book on what wardriving is and the tools that should be part of any IT department's arsenal that either has wireless or is looking to deploy it." -John Kleinschmidt, Michiganwireless.org Founder

The practice of WarDriving is a unique combination of hobby, sociological research, and security assessment. The act of driving or walking through urban areas with a wireless-equipped laptop to map both protected and un-protected wireless networks has sparked intense debate amongst lawmakers, security professionals, and the telecommunications industry. This first ever book on WarDriving is written from the inside perspective of those who have created the tools that make WarDriving possible and those who gather, analyze, and maintain data on all secured and open wireless access points in very major, metropolitan area worldwide. These insiders also provide the information to secure your wireless network before it is exploited by criminal hackers.

Wireless networks have become a way of life in the past two years. As more wireless networks are deployed the need to secure them increases. This book educates users of wireless networks as well as those who run the networks about the insecurities associated with wireless networking. This effort is called WarDriving. In order to successfully WarDrive there are hardware and software tool required. This book covers those tools, along with cost estimates and recommendations. Since there are hundreds of possible configurations that can be used for WarDriving, some of the most popular are presented to help readers decide what to buy for their own WarDriving setup.

Many of the tools that a WarDriver uses are the same tools that could be used by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to a wireless network. Since this is not the goal of a WarDriver, the methodology that users can use to ethically WarDrive is presented. In addition, complete coverage of WarDriving applications, such as NetStumbler, MiniStumbler; and Kismet, are covered.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Syngress; 1st edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931836035
• ISBN-13: 978-1931836036
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #406,756 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Who ARE these people giving 5 star reviews?, May 21, 2004

By	Anthony Sutton (Round Rock, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The short review of this book is that if you're interested enough in the subject to buy this book, then you're unlikely to find anything - and I mean ANYTHING - new in this book.

It takes two seperate chapters: one on installing the Windows utility Netstumbler (with pages and pages of screen shots, when a simple "click on the icon" would do), and one on using - not "advanced options" or anything, just using - Netstumbler. Similarly, three whole chapters are dedicated to the excruciating details of installation and use of the Linux tool Kismet, but again, nothing which couldn't be found in the README files or on the website which hosts the utility. They have a chapter on how to convert Kismet and Netstumbler logfiles to maps: if you already know about Stumbverter, WiGLE, and DiGLE (or can use Google), there's nothing new here. The authors pine on for a chapter about the wardrives that they've organized. If you've ever listened to your grandparents talk about the war, it's a lot like that. Then, they have a chapter on WiFi "attacks" - if you know how to manually set your SSID and MAC, and if you've ever even heard of Airsnort, you probably won't need this nontechnical, sub-script-kiddie, Windows screen-shot-laden chapter.

If you're interested in war driving, or if you're interested in Wi-Fi security, then you're probably already conversant with the tools covered in this book. There is no real technical depth, as this book is written to a "manager's level" of technical competence. ("Click OK to continue.") Their chapter on Wi-Fi network defense essentially boils down to "change default SSID" and "use WEP"; there's a couple of pages on VPN, firewalls, and using authentication, but again, nothing to justify the purchase price of this book.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything you need in one place - no searching the net, June 8, 2004

By	Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book literally contains everything you might need to know to successfully engage in WarDriving. Starting from the most basic setup of homemade components to purchase and use of commercial ones it is one of the most thorough books available today on the subject. The authors wisely start out the book with defining what WarDriving is and what it is not. They define WarDriving as moving around a specific area and mapping the wireless access points for statistical purposes. It does not include actually accessing these points without prior permission. As such, the purpose of WarDriving is to raise awareness of the security issues related to wireless networks.

The first section of the book covers setting up both a laptop and a PDA for WarDriving purposes. This includes important general concepts like antenna types and their advantages and disadvantages, and connecting antenna to a wireless NIC. It also includes very specific information like specific NIC cards that work well and are conducive to the connection of external antennas and the like.

Once your hardware is set up you have to turn your attention to appropriate software. The authors detail both Windows and Linux software (free and commercial products) available to discover access points. It includes how to use NetStumbler, MiniStumbler, and Kismet to locate wireless LANs, the various options, and how to interpret the results. These are very detailed chapters and explain both the concepts and actual product use very well. Each of these chapters ends with additional software available to actually map the access points.

The final section of the book covers the details of attacking wireless networks. It includes information on finding cloaked points, hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks, defeating MAC address filtering, and even attacking encrypted networks. In addition they include the details of enabling security on several specific models of Linksys and D-Link access points. The last part of the book covers advanced security information including configuring WiFi Protected Access, Wireless Gateway, VPN setup, RADIUS, and LEAP.

This is clearly one of the best books available on the subject of WarDriving. It provides a thorough examination of the subject, detailed explanations and instructions, and pretty much everything you need to know in this area. "WarDriving, Drive, Detect, Defend" is a very highly recommended book for anyone interested in wardriving.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No WarChalking!, May 7, 2004

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

WarDriving is a (sub)cultural phenomenon that has emerged with the rapid growth in WiFi networks. As these have increasingly been adopted by the great unwashed, the vendors have gone to great lengths to simplify the WiFi access setup. Often, this has led to people turning off any encryption, and choosing the vendor's default settings, including for passwords. Hence, as the author points out, some hackers use their computers in cars and cruise around a city, looking for any open access points.

This book has two audiences. The first is those who want to WarDrive. Here, you find all necessary nuts and bolts information about configuring your computer, be it running MS Windows or Linux. Plus descriptions of antennas. Enough to get you up and running, or driving, as the case probably is. You should find it quite facile, if you follow the book's guidelines.

The other audience is those of you running a WiFi net, or planning to. By squinting a little at the text, you get simple and effective advice on preventing unwanted access.

Did I say 2 audiences? There is a third, which may have some intersection with the others. Suppose you just want to learn more about WarDriving, perhaps out of pure curiosity. This book is ideal for that. The author is the organiser of the first 3 WWWarDrives. Well qualified to expound on this subject. The chapter on WWWarDrives will be good in later years, from a historical viewpoint.

As a bonus, Hurley "exposes" WarChalking. This is a meme that spread widely in 2002. Hurley claims that amongst actual WarDrivers, few actually do this. Basically, WarChalking is a cute, easy to understand idea, especially because it is so visual. Which undoubtedly helped the general media latch onto it and spread it.