Accessing a MAC-filtered Network

Summary

Open and MAC-address-filtered wireless access points are not only open to anyone within range to join and listen in to, but also do not provide protection to those on the network itself, even if they do not "broadcast" their name. These may seem like great ways to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your network without resorting to passwords, but they are trivial to overcome.

Walkthrough

The auditor can easily gain access to an open or MAC address filtered access point.

MAC-Address Spoofing
- Start the wireless interface in monitor mode
- Identify MAC addresses that are on the whitelist

airodump-ng

* Change our MAC address to one that’s on the whitelist

ifconfig mon0 down
macchanger -m [MAC ADDRESS IDENTIFIED] mon0
ifconfig mon0 up

Recommendation

Transitioning to WPA networks with strong passwords, even for guest networks, is recommended.