By hijacking unencrypted cookies an application allows an attacker to take over existing web
sessions that do not use SSL or end to end encryption. Which of the following choices BEST
mitigates the security risk of public web surfing? (Select TWO)
A.
WPA2
B.
WEP
C.
Disabling SSID broadcasting
D.
VPN
E.
Proximity to WIFI access point
A and D
Among all 5 choices, B and E are definitely wrong. D is definitely right. OK, now let compare choice A and C. Disabling SSID broadcasting is a weak security approach. WPA2 favors Counter Mode With Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code uses 128-bit AES is the most secure WIFI encryption. I would pick A and D.
I think this may be a mistaken question. The question is about session hijacking on the public web when SSL is not present. None of the listed choices will help to prevent that. The answers.com answer is VPN and Disabling SSID broadcasting, but that has nothing to do with the question. I suspect the wrong answer set got inserted and not checked later.
There are two more points I want to add:
1) If a person knows hijacking unencrypted cookies an application, don’t you think he/she must know how to check the SSID despite the broadcast is disabled?
2) Question states it is public web surfing. It means the SSID must be open and enable for the public to connect. Choice C, Disabling SSID broadcasting is definitely making no sense and wrong.
It means my previous call (Answer A and D) is the correct answer.
Actually, Lake, you make very good points, but I think this is a broken question, and we won’t see it on the exam–or it will have a different answer set.
You are right that WEP and proximity to the WAP are irrelevant, but so are the other two. If you want to mitigate the risk of public web surfing a VPN won’t help you, either. You are connecting to somewhere, not to the website, and then you go from wherever your VPN host is to the web server. Okay, that gives some protection to your machine, but the VPN host will be exposed instead. You would be transferring the risk, not mitigating it.
And WPA2 won’t have any affect on the web connection, either.
The simplest solution to the question would be to require https (ssl/tls) connections only. That would be far simpler than any of the four answers proposed here, and would mitigate the risk, would it not?
This is an oddball question because they use the term public web surfing. The key elements are how to stop someone from doing a MitM attack. WPA2 and VPN stop someone from sniffing your wireless network and VPN stop someone from sniffing your Internet traffic. It has to be A & D.
On the SSID, current recommendations state that you should not disable SSIDs. When your wireless systems have to exchange information, they exchange far more information if they cannot find the SSID.