Revealing WEP key hidden in asterisks

[mambojambo]

Hi guys,

I have a situation there where my uni technicians have configured my BA to connect to their campus wireless network by keying in the WEP key for me. Now.. thing is, I'm going to have to hard reset soon and I really don't wanna go all the way back to them just to get them key in the WEP for me.

DOes anyone know how to extract the WEP key saved for a particular SSID recorded in the PDA? I coldn't find any software for PPc that can reveal the asterisks.

[kerio]

You shouldn't look for software that can reveal the asterix but how the WEP passwords are stored in registry. It can't be so secured:)

[fraser]

Agreed, the answer lies in the registry. I did test a PC application once that when you pointed test automation utilities at it, you could look at the password field and see the value despite the asterixes!

A good way to start would be to search the registry for the SSID (name) of your wireless network.

[mambojambo]

Thanks guys for answering. I have tried searching the registry for the SSID and I found them. But definetely no values of the WEP key. For a start, I connected to my home wireless and keyed in my own WEP key. Later on, I searched for that key in my registry but couldn't find it. I however found the SSID for it.

I'm not sure what I should be looking for in the registry. I'm sure its coded in one of them.

Can someone help me on the registry part? Fraser? Kerio?

[fraser]

I just tried that as well, no luck. It's probably using some form of basic encryption for the key. Can't be all that super-secret as the phone needs to be able to read it to use it!

I did try jumping around. First I looked for my SSID, then I looked for references to the same GUID that it listed in adjacent keys. Might be worth a shot for you to try.

[kerio]

Hey and what about the easiest solution - take your notebook - download some good auto-sniffer and WEP key is yours:)

[mambojambo]

haha. Thanks guys.

I'll just ask them to configure the notebook.. and then I'll find a way to dig the wep key from the notebook. Worst come to worst I'll just have to sniff packets! haha.