SSID Broadcast on or off? Does hiding your SSID really help secure your wireless network?

[Hauslabuland007]

I'm in the middle of a fairly large project involved in diagnosing issues with our wireless network. The network was setup before our team was brought on and as of right now the SSID is hidden.

I remember reading in many places that hiding the SSID doesn't actually provide any real security, more like security through obscurity. This is taking into account that we have fairly good safeguards from other vectors of attack. We are using WPA2-Enterprise security with Microsoft PEAP authentication.

Does anyone have any substantial research or sources (not sure how credible PC World articles are) I can use to provide some insight to this to the higher ups on our team? The reasoning being is that I'm trying to use a Wireless Fluke device to test air quality and network congestion but it does not work on hidden networks. This is making it difficult to use the tools we have to accurately see what's going on.

Hopefully this makes sense and I will gladly provide more details if needed.

[marce1000]

 - As you say I don't see any benefits for hidden SSID's , a strong security layer behind the broadcasted-ssid's is the item to go for.

 M.

[JPavonM]

Hidden SSID's could introduce compatibility issues with quite a few devices.

If you are thinking about hidding SSID to prevent users from mistakenly trying to associate with the SSID, try to use a less-friendly name.

If this is in regards of wireless security, hidden SSID's could be discovered in seconds with only sniffing over-the-air and reading into the beacons or in the association frames from connectedd devices.

HTH
-Jesus
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[Sandeep Choudhary]

Hi,

It just a myth that hiding SSID will secure our wireless network. Its not true

When it comes to wireless network security, there’s really only one rule that you need to follow: Use WPA2 encryption, and make sure that you are using a strong network key.

or if you are using 802.1x then use EAP-TLS (Client and server side certificate needed).

Regards

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[Scott Fella]

I have to agree with everyone that hiding the ssid doesn’t secure your network “more” and it also can cause issues with devices.
Now since you are troubleshooting, you should probably explain what issues you have identified and what equipment you have. If your tools don’t work for you, request to enable broadcasting while you test. My Netscout and Netally tools are able to check air quality and throughput without SSID’s being broadcasted. Maybe look at other tools and or different ways to troubleshoot further.