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Every time I have to interact with a "captive portal", I'm annoyed at the hack implemented through DNS hijacking, rather than implementing and extending 802.1X

Every time I have to interact with a "captive portal", I'm annoyed at the hack implemented through DNS hijacking, rather than implementing and extending 802.1X and/or another layer-2 authentication scheme. The idea seems to have been tossed aside entirely. Instead, every device has to have a web browser. There's not even a way to do surrogate registration for devices that don't have browsers, with Apple TV and Nintendo Switch at launch (added later) being prime examples. IoT and headless gear is also a pain. On trips, I end up bringing my own travel router and using my laptop to auth it by proxy, but it's another thing to remember to bring.

chimeracoder 3y ago
> Nintendo Switch at launch (added later) The Nintendo Switch actually had a browser either at launch or close to it, then removed it in an update, and didn't add it back until about 3 years later. It's really hilarious that a device that touted its portability from the beginning was literally incompatible with most public Wi-Fi for years.
sandworm101 3y ago
I have a work laptop (government) that hates captive portals. It has a security system that won't let it connect using the local DNS. So it doesn't get captured. Those of us with such laptops all have tricks for getting to a hotel's wifi login page using IP addresses. But we have to do it fast, before the security software fully wakes up and blocks the hack. We used to just login on our phones, then tether the work laptop to the phone over USB. The security people caught up to that a couple years ago and disabled USB tethering. So now I alter my laptop's MAC to be the same as that from the work laptop. That tricks about 90% of hotel wifi into allowing the work laptop to connect without need of a splash page. But for the other 10%... (Not a joke, I do this) I sometimes login to the hotel wifi on my personal phone, tether that phone to my personal laptop, then setup that laptop as a router. The work computer can then connect to the wifi from the personal laptop, which tethers into the phone, which is on the hotel wifi. All of this just avoid another ridiculous wifi login page.
- fragmede 3y ago
  I don't know if it's more or less ridiculous, but I bring a small travel router running OpenWrt to do said bridging so I don't need to have my laptop running so I can use my Chromecast on the hotel TV.
- throw0101b 3y ago
  > I have a work laptop (government) that hates captive portals. It has a security system that won't let it connect using the local DNS. Does the OS not pay attention to DHCP option 114: This document describes a DHCP option (and a Router Advertisement (RA) extension) to inform clients that they are behind some sort of captive-portal device and that they will need to authenticate to get Internet access. It is not a full solution to address all of the issues that clients may have with captive portals; it is designed to be used in larger solutions. The method of authenticating to and interacting with the captive portal is out of scope for this document. * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8910 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8910 * https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=q78sq5rv https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=q78sq5rv
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    It is more layered than that. The work machine initiates a VPN automatically at login. Once that VPN is up, all traffic goes through the VPN, including DNS. It will actively ignore/block anything that isn't coming from the VPN. So we do tricks to get to the hotel splash page before the VPN software wakes up. These are corporately-managed windows machines. The boot/login process isn't exactly quick.
    - jemmyw 3y ago
      Why do you try to solve the problem at all? Wouldn't it be better to say "sorry I can't do any work from this location because of our IT policy" and let your organisation sort it out if they need you to work from a hotel?
- mdorazio 3y ago
  Does the laptop also prevent wireless tethering to your phone? Turning your phone into a hotspot is pretty trivial, at least on iOS. I often have to do it due to similarly arcane security configuration settings on my work laptop.
throw0101b 3y ago
> Every time I have to interact with a "captive portal", I'm annoyed at the hack implemented through DNS hijacking, rather than implementing and extending 802.1X and/or another layer-2 authentication scheme. The idea seems to have been tossed aside entirely. It has not: it's simply easier (less infrastructure) to not implement 802.1X. Basically every corporate / enterprise-y password where you use your AD/LDAP credentials to log into Wifi has gone through the effort. Not everyone wants (or needs) to do that. (Source: recently implement 802.1X as IT when we moved to a new work office.)
spr-alex 3y ago
neverssl.com

chimeracoder 3y ago

> Nintendo Switch at launch (added later) The Nintendo Switch actually had a browser either at launch or close to it, then removed it in an update, and didn't add it back until about 3 years later. It's really hilarious that a device that touted its portability from the beginning was literally incompatible with most public Wi-Fi for years.

sandworm101 3y ago

I have a work laptop (government) that hates captive portals. It has a security system that won't let it connect using the local DNS. So it doesn't get captured. Those of us with such laptops all have tricks for getting to a hotel's wifi login page using IP addresses. But we have to do it fast, before the security software fully wakes up and blocks the hack. We used to just login on our phones, then tether the work laptop to the phone over USB. The security people caught up to that a couple years ago and disabled USB tethering. So now I alter my laptop's MAC to be the same as that from the work laptop. That tricks about 90% of hotel wifi into allowing the work laptop to connect without need of a splash page. But for the other 10%... (Not a joke, I do this) I sometimes login to the hotel wifi on my personal phone, tether that phone to my personal laptop, then setup that laptop as a router. The work computer can then connect to the wifi from the personal laptop, which tethers into the phone, which is on the hotel wifi. All of this just avoid another ridiculous wifi login page.

fragmede 3y ago
I don't know if it's more or less ridiculous, but I bring a small travel router running OpenWrt to do said bridging so I don't need to have my laptop running so I can use my Chromecast on the hotel TV.
throw0101b 3y ago
> I have a work laptop (government) that hates captive portals. It has a security system that won't let it connect using the local DNS. Does the OS not pay attention to DHCP option 114: This document describes a DHCP option (and a Router Advertisement (RA) extension) to inform clients that they are behind some sort of captive-portal device and that they will need to authenticate to get Internet access. It is not a full solution to address all of the issues that clients may have with captive portals; it is designed to be used in larger solutions. The method of authenticating to and interacting with the captive portal is out of scope for this document. * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8910 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8910 * https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=q78sq5rv https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=q78sq5rv
- sandworm101 3y ago
  It is more layered than that. The work machine initiates a VPN automatically at login. Once that VPN is up, all traffic goes through the VPN, including DNS. It will actively ignore/block anything that isn't coming from the VPN. So we do tricks to get to the hotel splash page before the VPN software wakes up. These are corporately-managed windows machines. The boot/login process isn't exactly quick.
  - jemmyw 3y ago
    Why do you try to solve the problem at all? Wouldn't it be better to say "sorry I can't do any work from this location because of our IT policy" and let your organisation sort it out if they need you to work from a hotel?
mdorazio 3y ago
Does the laptop also prevent wireless tethering to your phone? Turning your phone into a hotspot is pretty trivial, at least on iOS. I often have to do it due to similarly arcane security configuration settings on my work laptop.

throw0101b 3y ago

> Every time I have to interact with a "captive portal", I'm annoyed at the hack implemented through DNS hijacking, rather than implementing and extending 802.1X and/or another layer-2 authentication scheme. The idea seems to have been tossed aside entirely. It has not: it's simply easier (less infrastructure) to not implement 802.1X. Basically every corporate / enterprise-y password where you use your AD/LDAP credentials to log into Wifi has gone through the effort. Not everyone wants (or needs) to do that. (Source: recently implement 802.1X as IT when we moved to a new work office.)

spr-alex 3y ago

neverssl.com