Should long wireless password use more RAM?

I've been loving these low cost, high elbow grease projects you all so kindly offer, and have some backtracking to do.

The PogoPros got me thinking, with the limited RAM would it make a difference if my wireless access password is 64 characters or just a few?

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-= Cloud 9 =-

@Joey - is this question for real?

Thanks for asking, yes it is a real question and applies to any embedded or low RAM device.

Take a Pogoplug Pro, the hardware is already lower RAM. Add working wireless device. It'll use more RAM because of buffering. AC wireless is said to need more ram additionally to mitigate packet fragmentation issues, but for now let's avoid that because I don't know what I'm talking about.

So if the RAM is already limited, and I have a password that's 8 characters, would that take up less RAM than 64 characters? I might be brainwashed by Steve Gibson and his random password generator.

My LAN security is hoped to keep out smart kids with too much time on their hands, summer months. I've heard it said a nosy neighbor with Wireshark can get your WPA2 password in under 2 days. Don't know if that's true.

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-= Cloud 9 =-

simple answer :

The password length between 8 and 64 characters is not going to affect ram usage to any noticeable degree. Most routers dont have 128mb ram to play with to start with.

if you are going AC, then the pogoplug doesnt have the grunt to handle it anyroads

Gravelrash Wrote:
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Most routers dont have 128mb ram to play
> with to start with.

Exactly what I need to hear. Thank you kindly sir.

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-= Cloud 9 =-

Just chiming in:

A char (single letter or number) is 8 bits, or one byte.

One MB is 1024 bytes. That's 1024 letters/numbers per MB.

You cannot realistically use passwords big enough to fill a single MB of RAM, and most routers have 16+ MB of RAM (usually around 8+ MB is free).


> I've heard it said a nosy neighbor with Wireshark can get your WPA2 password in under 2 days. Don't know if that's true.
Wireshark is for packet sniffing, a tool that is used to intercept packets after the wifi password has been cracked, or for listening to what moves through a ethernet wire.

Cracking wireless (and more or less anything else) happens with tools packed in Kali Linux distro (former Backtrack) or similar pentesting/hacking/reverse-engineering distros.
Here for example a guy uses GPU acceleration to bruteforce the passwords http://www.blackmoreops.com/2014/03/10/cracking-wifi-wpawpa2-passwords-using-pyrit-cowpatty/

I'm not terribly up-to-date with what can be done, I suggest to google for "wpa2 cracking kali" or something like that, and see what the current tutorial say is the upper limit of their technique, and adjust your configuration and passwords for that.

Mind-blowing Bob. Reading that has me convinced if someone wants wireless security you almost need to run several channels at the same time with the data interleaved between them. Over my head! But I'll have a go with Kali sooner or later and check my security.

Great stuff Bob, thanks!

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-= Cloud 9 =-

@Joey

When planning any security strategy, you must decide the following

What am i trying to protect - state secrets/personal documents/sentmental images etc
what am i willing to lose - reputation / financial information / important stuff only relevant to me
What is my budget - squillions / big bucks / few dollars

> Over my head!

I only said to look for the parts where the cracking articles talk of the limits of their approach, they usually state in plain english what you need to do to stay safe against that. Like "password longer than X" or "use encryption Y" or "disable feature Z in router".

You don't need to understand the ins and outs of pro wifi cracking (I'm not into it either), you only need to see what experts say about how to stay safe from amateurs following the same tutorials.