I have noticed in a few places people mention that if a popular SSID is used, it

Question

I have noticed in a few places people mention that if a popular SSID is used, it makes a network more vulnerable to rainbow table attacks. I saw this in one location and assumed they'd mistakenly used SSID in place of the word password, but I just saw it again in an answer on this website.

As far as I know the SSID is just the network name, and rainbow table attacks are concerned with password hashes, so what would using a common or popular network name have to do with making it easier for a password attack to be carried out on the network. Is the SSID used in any way, or is there some wierd correlation between SSIDs and common passwords?

Thanks!

Explanation / Answer

In WPA/WPA2, the SSID of the network is used as a salt to the encryption. A rainbow table therefore is only useful if the SSID used to generate it is the same as the SSID of the network you are attacking. Using a common SSID increases this chance.

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