Is there a WPS button on an iPhone

Jsibauste wrote:

Yes, an exaggeration in my part 😉, nevertheless, he was representing Apple at the Wi-Fi Alliance and seemed someone would could influence the direction of the company in this case.

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I never liked the whole button pushing thing and I fought vehemently against static PINs being printed on devices when I was representing Apple at the Wi-Fi Alliance.

I left Apple before I had a chance to try to push it into the Wi-Fi Alliance as a new WPS standard and no one else at Apple was motivated to go try to do so after I was gone.

Which all could mean anything from he was Jobs's golfing buddy and helped him make policy to he was one of many, many people who worked on WiFi at Apple and he went to a conference.

He was an Apple engineer involved with WiFi at a lower level at Apple but takes credit (often) for the development of WiFi on the iPhone. He left Apple in 2008. Since it is now 2016 I don't think any information he provides is valid any longer.

deggie wrote:

He was an Apple engineer involved with WiFi at a lower level at Apple but takes credit (often) for the development of WiFi on the iPhone. He left Apple in 2008. Since it is now 2016 I don't think any information he provides is valid any longer.

Thanks. I couldn't find out much about him on a Google search.

You can read and draw your own conclussions or create your own illusions.

https://www.quora.com/Can-you-use-a-push-button-WPS-Wi-Fi-setup-with-the-iPhone- iPad/answer/Phil-Kearney?srid=uJ5Ro

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Erik Fair 1 vote

by Jesse Hollington

The standards process is such fun, isn't it? Without someone committed to the right things, wrong things (or just really inadequate things) are what we get.

Upvote • Downvote • Report • Jun 21, 2015

Jon Plummer

Interestingly, the statement "No Apple devices support WPS even to this day" seems to be not quite correct. p14 of the current (6th gen) Apple Airport Extreme Setup Guide (Official Apple Support) shows how to use a WPS pin to connect a WPS device to the Airport Extreme. This may not be certified WPS support, however, so there's some semantic wiggle room. This has also been true in prior versions, for example on p25 of the 4th gen Airport ExtremeSetup Guide (Page on apple.com).

Upvote • Downvote • Report • Nov 17

Yes, I read all of that, I noted the date and I know when he left Apple. He was not involved at all with any Apple products other than WiFi on the iPhone. The original iPhone released in 2007 DID NOT support WPS. He was not involved with any other Apple products such as Macs, Airport, etc. and would not know whether they supported WPS or not (they didn't). He doesn't have any special insight into any subsequent iPhones and had no involvement with the iPad. And nothing he says within his answer says anything different. Since you could find his article it shouldn't take too much work on your part to find out about the insecurities of WPS that have already been referenced here. Or you can keep reposting this and look like a fool.

Yes, I read the Quora discussion when you first posted the link. And, no, nothing there gives me any particular reason to trust the source.

Well it doesn't affect me whether you think I look like a fool or not but the facts are there. I am aware of the network insecurities, nevertheless WPS is only a feature in devices and not the only option and can be easily disabled but I understand in some ways why Apple would not want to give this option to their users. This may be too complicated and may not want to upset their users with options 😝. By the way, I have an iPad that I like very much.

http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/27918/hacking/wi-fi-wps-hacking.html

No, the facts are NOT contained in the article you keep pushing. The facts are that Apple chose never to support WPS on any of their devices. Anyone who wants them to can send feedback but given the amount of time that has passed and the lack of support for WPS (as to updating the security) I don't see that ever happening.

Jsibauste wrote:

Well it doesn't affect me whether you think I look like a fool or not but the facts are there.

I never said i thought you looked like a fool. I merely pointed out that a few random people answering a question on Quora doesn't constitute quality evidence of anything. I could post here, that based on my extensive experience in an important position in the cellular industry, the reason that Apple never included WPS on the iPhone was because the major U.S. carriers objected to it, believing it would decrease their profits. How would you know what I know or don't know? Or if I came what I said?

Of course, I would never do that.

Jsibauste wrote:

Well it doesn't affect me whether you think I look like a fool or not but the facts are there. I am aware of the network insecurities, nevertheless WPS is only a feature in devices and not the only option and can be easily disabled but I understand in some ways why Apple would not want to give this option to their users. This may be too complicated and may not want to upset their users with options 😝. By the way, I have an iPad that I like very much.

http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/27918/hacking/wi-fi-wps-hacking.html

Why would you want a manufacturer to provide options to a "security" feature which is inherently not secure? How does that help anyone? I appreciate any manufacturer who works to purge inherently insecure standards and protocols from existence and use.

WPS is an idiotic standard. It's been shown to be riddled with security holes and exploits and should be dropped by all manufacturers, and actively discouraged in use with older hardware. It is a classic example of the nonsense idea of "convenient security".

Hackers have breach just about everything, do you think the DOD network is inherently insecure? I don't think so. The iphone from the terrorist in California was cracked by the Justice department. Devices using WPS may be less secure when that feature is enabled but it can be disabled. It is just one more option provided to the consumer that makes life easier. I doubt that there will be millions of hackers sitting outside homes in black SUVS trying to hack WiFis. The process is very complicated as provided in a link earlier.

By the way, the routers and gateways are the ones that you log in using that feature, does a phone having the WPS feature it's also vulnerable? In other words, can it also be hacked using the "vjlnerability"?

Now you are just babbling. The Justice Department spent a million dollars and did so on an older iPhone without the security enclave chipset. It isn't as hard as you think to bypass WPS and Apple is aware of the vulnerabilities which have existed for almost 5 years. No one has attempted to plug them. Apple takes security of their devices quite seriously with security designed into iOS devices. They are not going to give the option to bypass that security so it makes the consumer's life easier. If you want to have WPS you will need to purchase a different device.

That's cool, I was just helping Jbrown make a decision and his life easier. Nobody is going to hack his WiFi or his phone of he chooses to buy a device that can connect through WPS

One of the tools for cracking WPS is reaver - it's open source and anyone with an Internet connection can download and use it. There are tutorials provided online of now to use it. I personally know middle school kids who know how to sniff networks and crack simple, exploitable security like WPS with tools they just download from web sites. Some of the high school and college age people I know formally study such things in technology classes. It's a lot easier than you think to hack simple, insecure standards like WPS that have known and widely publicized vulnerabilities (Schools and colleges teach those classes to educate IT students in how NOT to design a security system).

there are other mechanisms of exploiting WPS, and those too have open source tools available online, and detailed step by step tutorials. All you need is a wifi enabled laptop. A popular pastime amongst self proclaimed geeks is to war drive cities and neighborhoods looking for exploitable networks to crack.

Well that's awesome, most major manufacturers of home WiFi routers should consider hiring these students, perhaps nobody has inform them of these issues as they continue to supply the market with such devices, unless you guys are not aware that WPS enabled routers are widely available and still beign manufactured, sold, installed, and used.