20080518 note to self wep pass phrases are hex values - plembo/onemoretech GitHub Wiki

title: Note to self: WEP pass phrases are HEX values link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/note-to-self-wep-pass-phrases-are-hex-values/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 529 created: 2008/05/18 07:40:15 created_gmt: 2008/05/18 07:40:15 comment_status: open post_name: note-to-self-wep-pass-phrases-are-hex-values status: publish post_type: post

Note to self: WEP pass phrases are HEX values

I recently decided to make 2 changes simultaneously in my wireless network environment. The first was to switch over from the DHCP server running on my home workstation to the built-in server on the home router. The second was to tear down and rebuild the wireless configuration on the home laptop.

Huge mistake. One that cost me around 2 hours to confirm, and re-confirm, that IP addresses really were being handed out consistently by the router, and another 3 messing around with the network config on the laptop.

Of course the main problem was my failure to RTFM. Not that the network configuration applet shipped by Red Hat has much actual documentation, unless you consider this documentation:

Wireless Settings Tab

The big thing I missed was the “0x” in front of the multi-character WEP key, which is, after all, really the hex value of a passphrase I chose for my network. The thing that threw me was that the leading 0x was not needed in any other interface I’ve ever configured wireless security with (which is mostly the ifcfg-wlan0 file on RHEL and the wireless networks wizard on Windows. Only this one, system-config-network-gui, did.

Oh yeah. Pretty GUI interfaces with lots of neat buttons and fields (as well as a variety of usage “hints” sprinkled around the screens for good measure) are so much more intuitive than simple text-based config files.

Also nice of the programmers to leave the “secure” WEP key in the clear, visible to all. Not a very good design considering you’re configuring security with it. Even Microsoft’s wizard defaults to obscurity, making you check off before revealing the actual text.

Right.