Windows 10 May Share Your Wi-Fi Password with Facebook

[PistalPete]

If you're taking up Microsoft on its offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10, you should know that the new operating system has a feature, called Wi-Fi Sense, that automatically shares your Wi-Fi passwords with others.

When Wi-Fi Sense is enabled, anyone you have in your Skype, Outlook or Hotmail contacts lists — and any of your Facebook friends — can be granted access to your Wi-Fi network as long as they're within range. Microsoft added this feature to save users' time and hassle, but as independent security blogger Brian Krebs put it, some security experts see it as "a disaster waiting to happen."

Krebs and others worry about the potential for strangers or untrustworthy friends being given access to users' home Wi-Fi networks. Microsoft has tried to reassure them by pointing out that you have to agree to enable Wi-Fi Sense every time you join a new network, that those people to whom you grant network access can't pass along that access to yet more people, and that the feature doesn't share an actual password, but rather an encrypted version of it.

Despite the safeguards, the issue is nonetheless dangerous for those users, and there are many of them, who agree to everything their computers ask of them. If they agree to share Wi-Fi Sense with their Facebook friends, then, yep, all of their Facebook friends will be given access to their networks. (We've already encountered this request from Windows 10, which didn't really explain what the feature entailed.)

Wi-Fi Sense makes sense if you're visiting a friend and don't want to enter a long string of random characters to get onto his or her network. But have you pruned your contacts lists down to just the people you trust? Are all of your Facebook friends really your friends? Probably not. Most people have many contacts or Facebook friends whom they barely know — would you really trust your Wi-Fi password with your second cousin's boyfriend, or that guy in the neighborhood who once fixed your toilet?

Windows 10 May Share Your Wi-Fi Password with Facebook

The other problem is that Wi-Fi Sense lets you share access to more networks than just your own. You can share access to any network that you got onto the old-fashioned way — by typing in the password. Wi-Fi Sense doesn't distinguish between your home network, your office network or your grandmother's home network. If you typed in the password, they're all fair game.

Source

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/windows-10-may-share-wi-164057617.html

[Son-of-Sam]

it,s good to see every one pointing out the faults that W/x has ,,,,,it makes it easy now to put the os on lockdown

a good firewall, reg edit,s turn off services, this is why i love nsane.....

i realy like the new os....just needs to be strap down...........also a lot of good stuff @t http://winaero.com/

peace

[spudboy]

This is a load of crap and completely overblown. For starters, it does not give everyone your password. Secondly, when your friends are over enable wi-fi sense, when they leave simply disable it. Entire non-issue solved. If it actually gave them your password they would still be able to access your wi-fi with the feature disabled, which they can't.

[Kalju]

If only all things to be afraid, it is better to die right now.
Living is always the most dangerous thing - always ends in death.

[Whoopenstein]

Ol' Chuck the closet pedo is getting excited about this feature. He can use your wifi to d'load kidi porn when you forget to turn this feature off.

[mjall]

totally agree that this is crap; well the matter of fact if true then don't us wi-fi sense to start with..... people can't stop complaining; let's remmeber one fact; Bill Gates has been 16 years on top of the Forbes list as the most rich person in the world; can someone tell me how many times did steve jobs achieve that accoldate even with his best shot at iphone!!!! I guess facts speak louder than just talk; people can continue to bash MS, it still controls the majority of our lives globally in so many platforms

[dcs18]

I have been observing that the idea to firewall ones OS has been catching-up lately, at nSane. :)

Personally, have always chosen to firewall mine — regardless of whether it shared the Wi-Fi Password or not. B)

[CODYQX4]

I have been observing that the idea to firewall ones OS has been catching-up lately, at nSane. :)

Personally, have always chosen to firewall mine — regardless of whether it shared the Wi-Fi Password or not. B)

I've had a firewall on my main OS for awhile now, but no excessive blocking. My browser is about as hardcore blocking as I can make it, as that's where most of the connecting is done.

I've recently taken all my test Windows VMs offline, and my main Windows VM is about to get firewalled to the point that only Core Networking, TeamViewer, and OpenSSH are allowed. This would allow me to control it remotely, but nothing Microsoft (I can allow just Windows Updates if I want) can touch the internet. It can be done with just the built-in Firewall, surprisingly (wasn't aware that properly blocked both incoming and outgoing connections). This level of blocking even makes a web browser useless.

PS: My "cure" for the Wi-Fi password leak is MAC Filtering. I'm certain my Wi-Fi password is on the 10 most used, but it doesn't matter since you're banned by default even with the password. F*ck Facebook and Wi-Fi Sense and password cracking tools.

[dcs18]

I've recently taken all my test Windows VMs offline, and my main Windows VM is about to get firewalled to the point that only Core Networking, TeamViewer, and OpenSSH are allowed. This would allow me to control it remotely, but nothing Microsoft (I can allow just Windows Updates if I want) can touch the internet. It can be done with just the built-in Firewall, surprisingly (wasn't aware that properly blocked both incoming and outgoing connections). This level of blocking even makes a web browser useless.

Yup, you got that right.

Wasn't aware myself about the capability of Windows Firewall to audit both — outbound and inbound traffic, as well (discovered that, by mistake — while testing out Windows Firewall Control (WFC.) :wub:

In short, the native Firewall on the Modern OS has improved over these years — expecting the one on Windows 10 to spring a few pleasant surprises, too. ^_^

[Sonar]

That setting in "manage wifi setting" was already OFF for me, some articles mention its on by default, but Ive never turned it off.

[CODYQX4]

I've recently taken all my test Windows VMs offline, and my main Windows VM is about to get firewalled to the point that only Core Networking, TeamViewer, and OpenSSH are allowed. This would allow me to control it remotely, but nothing Microsoft (I can allow just Windows Updates if I want) can touch the internet. It can be done with just the built-in Firewall, surprisingly (wasn't aware that properly blocked both incoming and outgoing connections). This level of blocking even makes a web browser useless.

Yup, you got that right.

Wasn't aware myself about the capability of Windows Firewall to audit both — outbound and inbound traffic, as well (discovered that, by mistake — while testing out Windows Firewall Control (WFC.) :wub:

In short, the native Firewall on the Modern OS has improved over these years — expecting the one on Windows 10 to spring a few pleasant surprises, too. ^_^

WFC is exactly what I figured out how to do. I had always heard that Windows Firewall could only affect traffic one-way.

I set it to "Medium Filtering". Then I go into Windows Firewall and purge all inbound and outbound rules that aren't "Core Networking" (you FUBAR networking if you remove those and use Medium Filtering), then I enable WFC Recommended Rules, then whitelist my apps. Recommended Rules allow Windows Updates, but block all the other MS stuff.

[banned]

This is a load of crap and completely overblown. For starters, it does not give everyone your password. Secondly, when your friends are over enable wi-fi sense, when they leave simply disable it. Entire non-issue solved. If it actually gave them your password they would still be able to access your wi-fi with the feature disabled, which they can't.

I like your style. I'd have one question though. Won't someone like Cain & Abel make a simple tool to pull Wifi pass from registry/memory?

[spudboy]

This is a load of crap and completely overblown. For starters, it does not give everyone your password. Secondly, when your friends are over enable wi-fi sense, when they leave simply disable it. Entire non-issue solved. If it actually gave them your password they would still be able to access your wi-fi with the feature disabled, which they can't.

I like your style. I'd have one question though. Won't someone like Cain & Abel make a simple tool to pull Wifi pass from registry/memory?

Personally, I have no idea about such things. I wouldn't worry about it though, imo.

[banned]

Personally, I have no idea about such things. I wouldn't worry about it though, imo.

Thanks. I certainly won't worry about it, because I don't even have Wifi on my XP PC lol.

[948bennett]

Is this option only on windows phone because i cant see the setting my my pc windows 10 enterprise?

[LeeSmithG]

Pennygetyourownip, Pennyquitmuchingoffourwifi, Pennygetyourownconnection.

I do not want my wifi (which I don't use, the rest of the house does as I am on Ethernet) with the rest of the planet.

They could down and up paedophile data, bomb making business, be connected to I.S. or something as bad to incriminate me.

Why have M$ allowed this?

Can they actually think?

NO!