So it looks like Wi-Fi Protected Access, known to the cool kids as WPA, has been partially cracked. Even better, the methodology was recently incorporated into Aircrack-ng, which is one of the most popular “security” tools out there. Expect script kiddie attacks sooner rather than later.

The actual method will be discussed at an upcoming security conference, PacSec, in Tokyo.

From start to finish, the attack takes between 12-15 minutes to complete.

Should the attack evolve—and there’s no reason to think it won’t now—the usefulness of WPA pretty much evaporates. Maybe it doesn’t so much matter to your Linksys router, but enterprise-level folk will be none too pleased, now that they have to make the transition to WPA2. Good thing most hardware out there supports both.