Café Latte attack had created havoc during the dawn of the millennium when wireless technology was just picking up the momentum. It was named so as the first invader had launched this form of attack sitting from a café near his victim’s wireless device while enjoying a cup of latte coffee. Another school of thought says that since the time required to launch the first Café Latte attack was almost comparable to have a cup of Latte at the Café, it was named so. Reetwika warns us about it, giving invaluable tips to avoid it, in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.

With the technology boom in the last couple of decades, the wireless network has become one of our basic needs now – be it on mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop, camera, speaker, mouse or any gadget you can think of, wireless enablement is a default feature. I mean who buys an electronic device today without Wi-Fi? But with every boon, there come a hundred banes and wireless too is not spared. One of the latest comebacks is the Café Latte attack on your state-of-the-art Wi-Fi hotspot.

Café Latte attack had created havoc during the dawn of the millennium when wireless technology was just picking up the momentum. It was named so as the first invader had launched this form of attack sitting from a café near his victim’s wireless device while enjoying a cup of latte coffee. Another school of thought says that since the time required to launch the first Café Latte attack was almost comparable to have a cup of Latte at the Café, it was named so.

Whatever be the reason, within a span of just seven years, it was fought back with the then advanced security protocols which could not be exploited by Café Latte attackers at that time. However, they are now back again with a heavier blow and are bound to crash the hi-tech Wi-Fi hotspots, irrespective of the security level.

Well, as a technology user, there is no glory in blindly following some tips like a layman to take precautions against anything. In order to fight out Café Latte attacks, you must first know the different ways by which data can be stolen from your wireless network along with the detailed course of operation of a Café Latte attack. Then only you can identify your wireless network’s weak points and thus better protect your Wi-Fi hotspots from the attackers.

Ways of Wireless Network Data Theft

Mainly there are four diverse wireless networks which we frequently use for commercial and personal purposes – Satellite, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Infra-Red technologies. There are different ways by which a Café Latte attacker may steal data from any of these wireless networks. Some of the commonly applied techniques are highlighted below:

1. Packet sniffing – Clandestinely read data (technically called packet) in transit within the range of the wireless network, especially which are sent in plain text without any encryption or password protection.

2. Denial of Services – Jamming the network by intentionally flooding with repeated service requests higher than its usual handling capacity so that legitimate users cannot avail the services (like creating bidirectional road traffic jam in a narrow lane). The attacker can exploit that choking time to forcefully penetrate the victim’s wireless network.

3. Man-in-the-Middle attack – Eavesdrop sender’s data packets from the network, steal and replace them with malicious contents and stealthily parcel the infected data to the recipient without anyone’s knowledge. The recipient will never come to know about the original data unless verified through other media.

4. Replay Attack – Secretly sneak data frames from the wireless network and later reuse them to hack into the hotspot.

5. BlueSnarfing – Exploit your device’s Bluetooth connection to gain unlawful access to other wireless networks connected through the same device.

The course of Café Latte Attack

Any Café Latte attack generally starts with the breaking of Wi-Fi Admin password. A weak or default password will be a lucrative bait for an attacker to target your network than others with a stronger one. You might be wondering how an attacker will know whether it’s a weak or strong password! For your information, hundreds of free Brute Force tools are available online which are intelligent enough to crack your password hardly within 12 hours. For strong passwords, it may take way longer to crack (say up to 2 years) and expectantly by the time they succeed, the Wi-Fi Admin must have changed it already. So, they always prefer weaker passwords which can be easily broken and evidently not changed frequently.

The second crucial factor is the security standard deployed on your wireless router. Previously it was required to gain physical access or proximity to the router to circumvent Wi-Fi password protection (hence the name Café Latte attack), but nowadays the intruders have made a sturdier return where physical access is no more needed, thus making the attack more powerful. It is extremely important for you to know the security protocol configured in your Wi-Fi router to prevent Café Latte attempts.

The most significant point of consideration would be to look for any presence of unauthorized access point(s) in your Wi-Fi network. Technically known as Rogue Access Points or Evil Twins, these are exposed vulnerabilities which open backdoors to attackers to sniff data passing through your Wi-Fi network. A Café Latte agent will first detect the availability of any rogue access point(s) in the victim’s network through War Driving to furtively enter as a silent user. He will make sure not to perform any task in the beginning so that his hideout is not disclosed to the Admin. Once he gains sufficient information about the network, he may slowly launch the attack.

Tips to Prevent Café Latte Attacks

1. The most important tip is to set an extremely difficult to guess (even with auto programmed Brute Force tools) Network Admin password and keep changing it frequently (maybe once in 45 days). In 68% of the cases as per a recent study, the router Admin credentials are found to be ‘admin’ (login username) and ‘admin’ (default password). Always remember, after you install your new wireless router, the device should prompt you to change the manufacture’s password. If you skip this step now as an additional unproductive task, then congratulations. You have already dug your own pit.

2. Must use latest wireless security protocols like Wi-Fi Protected Access with sophisticated encryptions (like WPA2 with AES, WPA with TKIP etc) for your wireless router to protect from Café Latte attacks. Unfortunately, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption can be easily cracked by them, better not to invest in it at this stage. If you are not sure of these protocols, do ask the device dealer before making your purchase. Do not save money by choosing a cheaper model with lower security standard. It will surely end up with a costlier loss soon after use.

3. If you are using Bluetooth to share free and quick media files with your friend, prefer to avoid doing that in an open public network as the attacker can exploit the Bluetooth connection to gain access to your secured Wi-Fi connection at home through that device. Open networks do not encrypt data packets over wireless channels and thus it becomes very easy for the Café Latte invaders to break into your Wi-Fi network.

4. At any given point in time, always keep a close eye on the list of access points connected to your Wi-Fi network (if you are the Admin or hotspot owner). Block any unknown (rogue) access points immediately if you find them to share your Wi-Fi connection. You can easily view all the coupled access points under Network (for computer) or Mobile Data (for smartphone) settings of your respective device.

5. Do not tether Wi-Fi hotspot from your wireless device (laptop, router, mobile etc) in an open crowded area. Try to keep your Wi-Fi off and use it as a single user modem to access the internet. If you still need to enable Wi-Fi hotspot, must protect it with a strong passkey first and then allow other users to share your wireless network.

6. Change default device name and hide the visibility of your Wi-Fi hotspot (SSID Broadcast in technical terms) to prevent unwanted users to know your router’s Service Set Identifier. This will reduce chances of targeted Café Latte attacks, especially in public areas. Rather, securely pass on the PIN to only legitimate users whom you wish to share the network bandwidth.

7. Enable auto generated 8-digit passphrases by the router to login to your Wi-Fi network. This heavily reduces chances of Dictionary threats as the probability of password cracks lowers down profoundly through auto passphrases. Manual routers are also available in the market at a cheaper price but you need to take a call which is more expensive to you – your data or money.

8. You must block access to your Wi-Fi connection after a specific number of unsuccessful login attempts (say 3, 5, 10 etc). This will prevent attackers to Brute Force your passkey for unlimited times.

9. Minimising your Wi-Fi range can be highly effective in increasing your protection against Café Latte attackers. Physical distance really matters in this case. Online Wi-Fi analysis tools are available to determine the current range of your network. You can easily adjust the reach from Transmit Power Control settings of the router. Lesser range decreases your wireless network’s visibility to physically farther devices.

10. You may also use MAC (Media Access Control) filtering to connect with specific MAC addresses only, stopping others from communicating with your Wi-Fi network. It can be determined to type a simple command on the ‘cmd’ console of your computer. However, invaders can still spoof their own MAC addresses to appear as authorised devices to gain access to your wireless network, but nevertheless, it will certainly double their Café Latte launch efforts.

As a good practice it is always advisable to keep updating the Wi-Fi router operating system, system firewalls and firmware for improved performance of your wireless network and to keep it secure all the times.

©Reetwika Banerjee

Photos from the Internet

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Reetwika Banerjee

Reetwika Banerjee is a Cyber Security Expert presently associated with a US consulting giant. She holds international MBA degree in Information System & Security and aims to be the face of women in security. During leisure hours, she enjoys writing books, news columns, travel blogs and films. She holds 2 World Records and 3 National Records for devising three innovative concepts in Modern Literature. A native of Kolkata, she is now a resident of Bangalore.

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