Jeff Duntemann's Wardriving FAQ

Part II: Legalities and Ethics

Is wardriving legal?

The legality of wardriving hasn't been tested, but few people think that wardriving itself is illegal. What is certainly illegal is connecting to and using networks without the network owner's permission (which is what most people call "breaking into a network") and wardriving has taken some hits in the press because network crackers will sometimes use wardriving tools to locate networks to break into. It's the ancient conundrum of the uses to which tools are put: A crowbar is handy for taking apart pallets for use as firewood, but a crowbar can also be used to break into buildings. Should crowbars then be illegal? Hardly. The gotcha is that this is a very new phenomenon, and the law hasn't entirely caught up with networking as a whole, much less the peripheral issues that emerge with regularity from the seething cauldron of technology innovation.

To keep wardriving legal, it's important to 1) obey the law as it exists today, and 2) do our best to encourage journalists to draw the distinction between wardriving tools and their abuse by crackers. Public perception is extremely important. If you connect to other people's networks illegally, it's your butt in a sling and nobody else's, but if you brag about it and the press picks it up, you hurt us all.

How do I stay on the right side of the law while wardriving?

My fellow wardrivers and I adhere to a relatively strict code of ethics that can be cooked down to the following:

Don't look.
Don't touch.
Don't play through.

In other words, 1) don't examine the contents of a network; 2) don't add, delete, or change anything on the network, and 3) don't even use the network's Internet connection for Web surfing, email, chat, FTP, or anything else. Somebody else paid for the bandwidth, and if you don't have permission to use it, you're stealing it. Basically, unless you have permission, don't connect. Consider it a matter of personal honour, even when it's unlikely that you'll be caught. (If you get too used to feeling that you won't get caught, sooner or later you will get caught!)

What is autoconnection and how do I avoid it?

You don't always have to do anything deliberately to connect (illegally) to someone else's network. Some client adapters are more "promiscuous" than others and will hook up with any non-WEP AP that comes into range, given enough time to perform a DHCP transaction. This is called autoconnection, and it's a problem for wardrivers for two reasons:

It's illegal to connect to a non-public AP without permission. Period.
Some client adapters will autoconnect to an AP, and then place the SSID of that AP in the SSID field of the client adapter's operating profile. After this, your stumbler program will not log any additional stations with SSIDs other than that one. Your wardrive is then basically over, even if you drive another fifty miles.

Avoiding autoconnection is essential. Sometimes it can be prevented by unloading your client adapter's client utility before setting out on a wardrive. That may not, however, be enough. The only foolproof way I know to prevent autoconnection is to disable all networking protocols (TCP/IP, NetBEUI, NetWare, or anything else) on your wardriving computer before setting out. Without a networking protocol like TCP/IP in operation, the computer has nothing to connect with—the machinery by which it connects is simply "not there." However, the Wi-Fi client adapter will still log stations through a stumbler utility.

How you disable networking protocols depends on what operating system you're using. On Windows, you need to bring up your network connection's Properties window and un-check any networking protocols that are currently enabled and active. Then reboot.

It's a serious hassle to keep enabling and disabling networking protocols, so I recommend finding yourself a cheap Windows laptop that can run at least Windows 98, and making it a dedicated wardriving machine. I've seen functional if slightly creaky machines like the IBM Thinkpad 560E available on EBay for as little as $150. Pull out all the networking stuff, install NetStumbler, and don't use it for anything else. If keeping your nose legally clean is important (and it should be!) do not load the machine up with a lot of network packet sniffing or "password recovery" utilities. You probably won't run into trouble with law enforcement, but if you do, you want a machine on your back seat that simply doesn't have the stuff in it to commit a crime.

Obviously, if everyone enabled WEP on their APs, autoconnection would not be a problem...but hey, when was Hell scheduled to freeze over?

What do I do if I get pulled over while wardriving?

First of all, cooperate fully with the officer who pulls you over. Stay calm and don't act like you're smuggling dope or have an open container under the seat. Let the officer lead the conversation, and answer his/her questions honestly. Don't assume the officer knows nothing about wardriving. This might have been true in 2001, but it's not true anymore.

Even if you're a networking consultant or IT staffer and have multiple legal uses for packet sniffers and password crackers, I suggest not having such tools installed on the computer you use for wardriving.

A sidenote: You're more likely to be pulled over if you have a laptop on the passenger's seat and you're constantly trying to watch what's going on—and thus weaving all around the road like a drunk. I suggest leaving your laptop on the back seat. Wardriving really isn't interactive. Your stumbling utility logs stations automatically and doesn't require any input from you while it's working. Don't let it be a distraction that gets you into a crackup.

Also, there are laws in some states that prohibit watching screens like TVs and computers while you're driving. You can definitely get a ticket if you're pulled over in those states and are found to have a working laptop in the front seat somewhere, and the ticket has nothing to do with wardriving per se. Even if you keep your laptop in the back seat, try to turn off video if you wardrive at night, so as not to have the interior of your car awash in a bluish glow. The police are always watching for weird stuff going on in their turf. That's their job. Try not to stand out. (I do all my wardriving during the day.)