I have a wireless PCI card based on a ralink RT61 chipset in an old PC. It is connected to an antenna on top of my roof. There are no ralink software or drivers on that PC.
So what does the card do ?
Does it transmit its MAC address ? Try to discover other APs around it ? Does it try to get an IP assigned to it ? Does it transmit at all ?
Wandering about security issues ....
[]'s
Keep wandering. You may stumble onto something.
Sit there absorbing a small amount of electricity. :-)
Without drivers, its doing nothing. However are you /sure/ there are no drivers? If its a Windows PC it may have builtin drivers for the card. In which case it's probably active, trying to find an AP to connect to.
If you activate it in infrastructure mode, then it'll periodically send out broadcasts which will contain its MAC.
If security is an issue, disable or remove the card.
Shadow hath wroth:
That sounds like a frequency hopping spread spectrum chip used by Raylink, Symbol, and WebGear cards. It's probably intended to connect to a WISP (wireless internet service provider) that uses that technology. Is it a PCMCIA card that's shoved into a PCI adapter? Something like the tiny photos of the Raylink PCI adapter at:
Yes. All wireless bridging does that.
Nope.
Yep. From the WISP's central router and DHCP server. Without a contract, it's not going to happen.
Yes.
NO internet connection = few security issues.
???
Here it is:
With drivers it gets an invalid 10.10.10.1 type address from the ISP. Without drivers I can't see it :P Using linux.
Like someone might locate the PC by the MAC address, even if I unload the drivers. Using a directional antenna, and a netstumbler on a laptop. Something like that. I deduce the answer is yes .... []'s
Why do you think that IP address is 'invalid'? Many ISPs assign IP addresses from the private spaces and do NAT at the head end.
A client radio does not broadcast beacons; with no significant traffic on this client, there is little RF to do direction finding. Netstumbler is not suited for direction finding in any case; there are other tools for that. Being that this is FHSS, you wouldn't see it with conventional software tools anyway; you might as well be sniffing for baby monitors or microwave ovens.
Michael
Shadow hath wroth:
OK, I was wrong. It's a conventional 802.11b/g wireless PCI card.
That's normal. Most WISP (wireless ISP) providers do NOT supply routeable IP addresses. 10.xxx.xxx.xxx is part of RFC-1918 non-routeable private IP addresses.
OK, what makes you think there are no drivers? If you're using the card and it gets an IP address, there's certainly a driver somewhere. Probably came with your unspecified Linux mutation.
All 802.11 wireless is bridging. Bridging requires that everyone know the various MAC addresses. MAC addresses are sent in the clear and not encrypted. I suppose once can precipitate a DoS attack if I knew your MAC address, but that's about it.
Ummm... what's the question? Actually, I don't see a problem. If you disable the interface: ifconfig wlan0 down even with the MAC address, there's nothing I can do to your system.
However, if you're worried that the WISP might find out that you're hacking their system with a machine that was formerly on their network, you may have a problem. I don't know where the 10.10.10.1 address is coming from, but I suspect you don't have permission to use that system.
Sure, it gives me a 10.10.10.x address via DHCP, if I use an invalid mac and wep key. If I use a valid one, I can choose which 172.x.x.x address I use (depends only on mac, as wep key is same for all users). Legit users do not have dhcp, they get static IPs
It's a router. It has a USRobotics 56k modem and the wireless card. And two linux liveCDs which I built myself. The dialup CD certainly does not have a ralink driver, and vice-versa. I exchange them as needed.
You see, when I'm using the dialup CD, which I do 98% of the time, my antenna and wireless card are all there, but no drivers. Wondering if someone could sniff it out. That was the original question. I don't have a laptop to test ....
True. Not a problem though.
The 10.10.10.x I can. But it has no valid gateway. It's the
172.x.x.x one that they object to me using..... which I do only to dl heavy stuff it the twilight hours. PS this is the backwoods of South America. Lawyers please refrain from commenting .... []'s
They certainly do .... :P
ok - you have a PC box acting as a local router with a dialup modem or a local WISP connection all driven by a bootable Linux CD config'd for either the modem or WiFi -
ok - back to original type question.... The WiFi is gonna be like any other WiFi card.... if "active" it will transmit it's SSID (or not) and Netstumbler will "see" it. That's the RF level - no driver, no activation, no RF signal ?
Next, is the connection "into" the Access Point - either end - You would need your WEP/WPA or whatever to get past the Access Point.
Next level - IP - you would need to get an IP address on the "network segment". Past that - you need to find some "service" or "open port" to connect.
SO - all of these things need to be in place to make a connection "into", or "out of" your router box.... no different than any other situation.
That was my original question. What kind of built in activity does a PCI wireless card have if no drivers are loaded ? Does it scan, transmit MAC, try to find an AP ? Or does it just sit there, dead to the world, waiting for a driver to start it up ?
Yes, the wireless linux CD router works fine. I understand that part of it. It spoofs the mac address, enters a valid wep key, joins the ISP, sets up routing and nameservers. Its what happens when the dialup CD is working that worries me.
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