About WLAN and monitoring..

[Andrew]

Hi,

Florian Reitmeir wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jan 2008, algenon flower wrote:
>   
>> I run a Tor client on a laptop at easy to access pub wifi access points. What I need to know is, assuming I have disallowed file sharing, ect what info could a wifi host be able to access on my computer? I have heard they could only log my MAC address, the unique code identifying my wifi card. Is more available to an attacker?
> [snip]
> "the internet" begins at layer 3. Tor provides services for layer 3 and
> above. So yes, a WIFI provider might be able to identify your laptop with to
> MAC address of the wifi or build in ethernet card. (Layer 2)
>
> But if Tor is used correctly he is not able to "see" what services "of the internet" 
> you are using.
>
>   
There's also the possibility (at leat for some versions of linux and 
newer Windows versions, not sure about other OSs) to spoof (change/hide) 
your MAC address.
Be advised that such applications might be illegal in some countries.
One very powerful linux distro allowing for this is BackTrack2, 
available via h**p://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html - Note that 
this distro comes with some advanced security scanners etc., which might 
be illegal to use in some countries (and should only be used on *your 
own* network in any case)! Also note that BackTrack was not built to be 
secure itself (though I don't know of any vulnerabilities); it might 
actually be less secure than common distributions.
An alternative for Windows (2k and up) are SMAC and similar.

Regards
Andrew