Hacker News Reader

As some others pointed out, the title is very alarming and misleading. "cracked", to us, means "has a flaw, i.e. broken." If it were true, it would be very big news.

Fortunately, this is far from the case.

Not that alone. They show that that is "practical", which may be semi-new, but the main trick:

" it is the de-authentication step in the wireless setup that represents a much more accessible entry point for an intruder with the appropriate hacking tools. As part of their purported security protocols routers using WPA2 must reconnect and re-authenticate devices periodically and share a new key each time. The team points out that the de-authentication step essentially leaves a backdoor unlocked albeit temporarily."

I take offence to their statement "leaves a backdoor unlocked". It's no such thing. The de-auth step merely saves you the time of having to wait for the client/ap to renegotiate on their own. Even if your de-auth step is successful, you still have to conduct a brute force against the handshake you captured. Nothing, at any time, is unlocked.

Ive seen similar "papers" on BCompSc degrees.

I'd assume that if this were an actual break-through result it would be published in a reputable academic conference and not a random journal..