Hexing MAC address of Belkin routers reveals Wifi passwords
Security researchers Jakob Lell and Jörg Schneider claim that the default WPA2 passwords used by many Belkin routers can be easily guessed by an attacker who knows the device’s WAN MAC address.
A number of Belkin wireless routers are shipped with a default WPA2 password to protect network connections. The apparently random passwords are printed on a label that’s on the bottom of the router.
Although this approach should be, in theory, more secure, because the password is likely stronger than what many users would set themselves, it turns out that the random passphrases aren’t so random. The researchers have determined that the password is based on the device’s WAN MAC address, and since this information is not so difficult to obtain, a remote attacker could easily hack into a targeted network – given that the default configuration is used.
