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user2817
Asked: 2010-12-03 08:02:41 +0800 CST

How did Ubuntu know my WPA Key?

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I've recently moved my /home to another computer (keeping all configuration files), with a fresh installation of Ubuntu 10.10.

After Installation I've installed wicd and ndiswrapper, to get my Internet Connection up and running. However, after changing /etc/network/interfaces from

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

To

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

and running sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart to get wlan0 set up, wicd just suddenly connected... to my modem. Without supplying any information about the modem whatsoever. Of course wicd creates a local directory at ~/.wicd/, but that directory is empty, and the temporary global configuration at /var/lib/wicd/configurations/ didn't exist due to fresh installation of ubuntu.

So what's the deal? Where did wicd get the ESSID and the WPA Key?

There hasn't been any activity in this question, but it's still open (and even worth some rep)!

wireless wicd

4 Answers

  1. On a standard Ubuntu installation using GNOME and network-manager the WPA key is stored in the GNOME keyring. This will be restored with /home.

    You can test if this is so in your settings by temporarily deactivating keyrings in ~/.gnome2 (make a backup before you do so!).

    The only other location I can think of where Wicd could get a WPA key from is etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. I have no idea however how this file could have moved to your /home (if that is exclusively what you restored).

    I don't use Wicd, therefore I can't check settings but if ~/.wicd is empty then there is no chance that any keys are being stored there. You maybe want to check if wicd_gui has another path to store things.

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  2. Best Answer

    If you did not format your system, and installed on top of an old installation, then it is quite likely that your old settings were brought over (including settings in /etc). Whatever is not installed on the live CD would have been left alone, which is explains the apparent magic bunnies result that you experienced. It's less of a mysterious answer :( - but at least it's more realistic :).

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  3. If the only common thing between the old computer and the new computer is within $HOME then the key must be in $HOME somewhere. So the question is really, which file is it in?

    You could find out by getting a list of the file common to both machines (find $HOME -type f should do from your description). First backup these files and then remove them. Check that the key is no longer known. Then replace half of the files and check again, if it is not known then the key must be in the other half. Split the second half in two and keep going in that manner until you home in on the file containing your key.

    Might take a while.

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  4. WICD has a configuration file for all of the networks that have ever been connected to in

    /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf

    this will contain a set of entries for every bssid (base station MAC address) that you have connected to. So when wicd sees a network that it has connected to before it will get the key values from this file.

    There is also wired-settings.conf for the settings for wired connections, and various other settings in manager-settings.conf

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