By hijacking unencrypted cookies an application allows an attacker to take over existing web
sessions that do not use SSL or end to end encryption. Which of the following choices BEST
mitigates the security risk of public web surfing? (Select TWO)
A.
WPA2
B.
WEP
C.
Disabling SSID broadcasting
D.
VPN
E.
Proximity to WIFI access point
A and D
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Among all 5 choices, B and E are definitely wrong. D is definitely right. OK, now let compare choice A and C. Disabling SSID broadcasting is a weak security approach. WPA2 favors Counter Mode With Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code uses 128-bit AES is the most secure WIFI encryption. I would pick A and D.
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I think this may be a mistaken question. The question is about session hijacking on the public web when SSL is not present. None of the listed choices will help to prevent that. The answers.com answer is VPN and Disabling SSID broadcasting, but that has nothing to do with the question. I suspect the wrong answer set got inserted and not checked later.
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There are two more points I want to add:
1) If a person knows hijacking unencrypted cookies an application, don’t you think he/she must know how to check the SSID despite the broadcast is disabled?
2) Question states it is public web surfing. It means the SSID must be open and enable for the public to connect. Choice C, Disabling SSID broadcasting is definitely making no sense and wrong.
It means my previous call (Answer A and D) is the correct answer.
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Actually, Lake, you make very good points, but I think this is a broken question, and we won’t see it on the exam–or it will have a different answer set.
You are right that WEP and proximity to the WAP are irrelevant, but so are the other two. If you want to mitigate the risk of public web surfing a VPN won’t help you, either. You are connecting to somewhere, not to the website, and then you go from wherever your VPN host is to the web server. Okay, that gives some protection to your machine, but the VPN host will be exposed instead. You would be transferring the risk, not mitigating it.
And WPA2 won’t have any affect on the web connection, either.
The simplest solution to the question would be to require https (ssl/tls) connections only. That would be far simpler than any of the four answers proposed here, and would mitigate the risk, would it not?
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This is an oddball question because they use the term public web surfing. The key elements are how to stop someone from doing a MitM attack. WPA2 and VPN stop someone from sniffing your wireless network and VPN stop someone from sniffing your Internet traffic. It has to be A & D.
On the SSID, current recommendations state that you should not disable SSIDs. When your wireless systems have to exchange information, they exchange far more information if they cannot find the SSID.
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As always a very badly written question. We have to choose the best out of all the bad answers which at the end of the day do not provide any security for the issue at hand.
** The key in here is that we are talking about PUBLIC WEB SURFING (not corporate).
** The question is. What do they mean by PUBLIC WEB SURFING?
The question to my mind seems to conjure the idea that the user is either using a home Wi-Fi or a public Wi-Fi and is being hacked by a person in closed proximity to both the Access Point and the user’s device.
So to my mind the user is either doing some PUBLIC WEB SURFING from HOME or from a PUBLIC PLACE.
As it has been already mentioned, of all the 5 answers we can eliminate 1 from the onset:
B.WEP – WEP is a very weak protocol and would only make matters worse, rather than mitigating them
So this just leaves the following as possible answers, of which we must choose two:
** A.WPA2
** Disabling SSID broadcasting
** D.VPN
** Proximity to WIFI access point
Of the above; I think we all agreed; we must choose “A.WPA2” as one of the possible answers. As we know, WPA2 is short for Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 – Pre-Shared Key, and also called WPA or WPA2 Personal, it is a method of securing your network using WPA2 with the use of the optional Pre-Shared Key (PSK) authentication, which was designed for home users without an enterprise authentication server. So WPA2 is a protocol to use when browsing via Wi-Fi. Having said that, most devices nowadays come with WPA2 installed by default. So if WPA2 is not already installed, someone ought to get fired!
So we must then choose one from C, D and E. Yet, the answer would depend on the actual location the browsing is taking place from:
(1- ) PUBLIC WEB SURFING FROM HOME
** If a person is browsing from home…why would the person choose a VPN? Would he create a VPN tunnel from home to where? From his home to his own home?
** If the person is working from home he could disable the SSID. Yet, as mentioned, if a person knows how to go about hijacking unencrypted cookies and applications, don’t you think he/she must know how to check the SSID despite the broadcast being disabled?
** So to my mind, in this scenario the answers could be “E- Proximity to WIFI access point”.
Yet for the hacker to be close enough to the AP, he must be pretty much inside the home or very near to it (in the garden)
(2- ) PUBLIC WEB SURFING FROM A PUBLIC PLACE
** If the person is using a PUBLIC Wi-Fi (let’s say in a hotel or airport), disabling the SSID does not make any sense. Why would a hotel or airport do that? It is counterproductive.
If the Hotel were to hide the SSID, then how would the guests access it?
Unless they disable the SSID and leave a note to the users saying: “Dear customer: We have disabled the SSID and for the record is called” hack-my-Wi-Fi”? And what if the hacker is one of said customers?
** Why would a hotel or airport create a VPN? They usually use a captive portal nowadays (A captive portal is a web page which is displayed to newly connected users before they are granted broader access to network resources.)
** As for option E, in this scenario it does not make any sense either:
Iif the user were to be far away from the Access Point, the user would not be able to browse in the first place, in which case no hacking would be possible.
So I am not sure either how “E- Proximity to WIFI access point” could be considered a mitigation.
Unless the public place puts a note to hackers such as: “Dear hackers, for the security of our customers we kindly request that you stay well away from our Wi-Fi access point. Your consideration is appreciated.”
Really? Of all the daft questions they have put in this exam, this one certainly takes the price
Based on the above, I would say that if the user were browsing from HOME, A and E are the best options.
A- Provides the required secure protocol
E- The wifi access point can be placed in such a way as to limit access to people inside the home.
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