URGENT question on Qwest WiFi routers...

[Eric Shubert]

Jim March wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> This is both geek and election related.
> 
> I need to know if anybody has encountered a WiFi router that 
> automatically creates an SSID consisting of "myqwest" followed with no 
> spaces by four numbers - seems to be standard "base 10" vs. hex or 
> whatever.  I need to know if the numeric portion of the SSID was 
> auto-generated, and if so if the SSID changes on each boot -  for 
> example, a single device will be "myqwest4529" and then later 
> automagically change to "myqwest2450" or whatever.

I haven't seen, and would be very surprised to see a device's SSID 
change on its own from one day to the next.

> OR, would those last four digits be locked to a given WiFi router?
> 
> Put another way: if I see an SSID of "myqwest1234" one day and 
> "myqwest4321" the next, is it likely, plausible or possible that it's 
> the same device both days?  What is the significance of those last four 
> digits?  Does a human put them in there?  Are they locked into that pattern?

A human could change the number, or the entire SSID for that matter. The 
SSID is a trivial configuration parameter. So it's not likely, somewhat 
plausible, and certainly possible that the same device would have a 
different SSID on different days.

It's very hard to tell w/out inspecting the specific device. Wifi 
routers are reportedly popular targets these days for pown-ing 
(hackers). So it's quite possible that the configuration (of which SSID 
is a part) was modified unbeknownst to anyone.

It's also possible that the stock firmware was replaced with some other 
router software such as dd-wrt or openwrt, depending on the mfr/model of 
the device. Any sort of customized software may have been loaded in that 
case. I would start with checking the firmware.

I don't suppose anyone checked the serial numbers. :(

> Importance is...extreme.  Cannot go into details yet.  Affects the most 
> recent election in Maricopa County.
> 
> Jim
> 



-- 
-Eric 'shubes'