Windows 10: Windows 10's Wi-Fi Sense password sharing sparks security concerns

Windows 10's Wi-Fi Sense password sharing sparks security concerns | TechHive

:)

 

Preventing any wifi user from sharing my passkey on WiFi Sense

Hi Vanity,

We appreciate you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I understand that you have question on how Wi-Fi Sense works on Windows 10.

When Wi-Fi Sense is fully enabled, it shares most of your Wi-Fi access passwords with all of your Outlook.com, Skype, and Facebook contacts. According to Microsoft, it says that Wi-Fi Sense only shares your passwords with direct friends/contacts, and not
friends-of-friends. Wi-Fi Sense automatically connects you to nearby Wi-Fi networks, helping you save your cellular data for when you really need it and giving you more Internet connectivity options. Wi-Fi Sense can do a lot of
things for you to get you connected to the Internet using Wi-Fi, so you don't have to do them on your own. These include:

• Automatically connecting you to crowd sourced open Wi-Fi networks it knows about.
  
• Accepting a Wi-Fi network's terms of use on your behalf and providing additional info for you to networks that require it.
  
• Letting you exchange password-protected Wi-Fi network access with your contacts to give and get Internet access without seeing each other's Wi-Fi network passwords.

If you don't want to use Wi-Fi Sense, you can disable the Wi-Fi sense in the settings.
If you want to disable Wi-Fi Sense, hit the Start button and type "Wi-Fi", and then click
"Change Wi-Fi settings". In the settings applet that pops up, click
"Manage Wi-Fi settings". From there, you can see different settings, there you can turn
Wi-Fi Sense off. You can disable password sharing with Facebook, Outlook, or Skype; and at the bottom there is a list of your known Wi-Fi networks, where you can opt in and out of password sharing.

I suggest you to refer the below article for more information about Windows 10.

Frequently Asked Questions: Windows 10

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance with Windows. We are glad to assist you.

Thank you.

 

WiFi Sense is a security risk

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/wi-fi-sense-faq

To share Wi‑Fi network access with your contacts

• 
  Go to Start
  
  , then select
  Settings > Network & Internet > Wi‑Fi >
  Manage Wi‑Fi settings.
  
• 
  Turn on Connect to networks shared by my contacts.
  
  When this option is turned on, you'll be able to do two things—automatically get connected to password-protected Wi‑Fi networks your contacts share with you, and select Wi‑Fi networks to share with your contacts by using Wi‑Fi Sense.
  
• 
  Select one or more of these check boxes—Outlook.com contacts,
  Skype contacts, or Facebook friends—depending on which groups of contacts you want to share networks with.
  
• 
  When you connect to a password-protected Wi‑Fi network later on, select the
  Share network with my contacts check box if you want to share that network.
  
  For contacts in the group or groups you chose, Microsoft will share access to that network if they're using Wi‑Fi Sense on a PC that’s running
  Windows 10 or phone that’s running Windows 10 Mobile. It can be a few days between the time you share the network and the time your contacts get connected to it.
  
  To share Wi‑Fi network access with Outlook.com contacts, they need to be in your address book and you need to be in theirs.
  

 

I don't really see this as a problem, unless my understanding is totally wrong

I allow access via Sense on my phone, 2 friends come round and get access straight away through it, they do not get the password but get internet access because my phone has shared it, which I can turn off at any time and they lose access

if these 2 friends do share the access to people I don't know, they will all need to be in my house to access it

if at any point I deny access, the original 2 will lose the access, and because they cannot access it anymore they also cannot share it

if we are talking about open public wifi, then anybody can get access anyway, so the only thing this simplifies is having to enter a password

that's my thoughts, I don't see an issue

 

Think about a work situation. I befriend you, you work at xyz comoany, I hang in your parking lot and get on your network. All because a sloppy admin forgot to disable it totally.

 

would wifi reach far into a parking lot without security seeing you and wondering what you are doing
would the sloppy admin have you in their contact list

 

Depends on lots of things which control wifi strength and propogation. I don't need the admin, only friend you and get you to put me in your contacts. It's a good idea, poor execution. I am sure a GPO can disable this mess tho.

 

Would not work at the company I work for, have rsa keys that control who can access wifi. *Smile