How easy is it to spoof a MAC address?

[Dolby]

I've got a wifi AP and I don't have any security enabled. I do, however, have MAC filtering on. How secure is this? How easy is it to spoof?

 

[BiteMe]

very easy...
normally got o device manager, find your wireless card, select properties and you should find a field "locally administered address"

that is where you type in your desired mac address, overriding the one written to the firmware.

sniffing macs on your lan to use for spoofing also isnt too difficult

 

[Dolby]

But for others that may want to hop on my AP? And if they can change it easily, how can can they change it to come on my network? Am I correct in saying it's safe on my side?

 

[BiteMe]

look...you, as an intruder, sit and sniff what is going on outside the network...some of the stuff floating around in the air will be the mac addresses of the machines involved.

you then take the mac address you found floating around, do like i said in my post above and voila, you are now part of that network, and authorised (assuming extra layers, like wep, wpa are taken care of)

no, it isnt secure, neither are locks on doors, but we use it in lieu of anything else.

use wpa-psk and add mac filtering if you are that concerned

 

[Dolby]

Thanks.

Would the router not pick up that there are two identical MAC address on the network?

 

[RSkeens]

Hi,

As far as I know, MAC addresses can be altered in the Windows Registry (although I have never had an desire to performed this).

Best wishes

RavenServers

 

[rsachoc]

Hiding your SSID and enabling mac address filtering is a way to stop casual "hackers". Enaabling WEP will stop alot of hackers.

Enabling wpa-psk would be your best bet. There are quite a few mini-apps out there that would change your mac adress with the click of a button.