(In)Security in the Air

I recently did a round trip on Delta – short domestic flights on Airbus A320. Both flights had WiFi from gogoinflight. You can use the WiFi for free for in-flight entertainment and flight information, or pay for Internet access.

I was somewhat surprised to see that even connected just for the free services a scan from my iPad (Fing) appeared to reveal the manufacturer and MAC address of  every connected device on the plane. For some devices it also revealed the owner’s name. All manner of hacking was, at least theoretically, available to anyone so inclined. I tried it on both legs of the trip, same results.

I also tested in my hotel, to confirm this was not expected behavior. A scan there, on the hotel’s free WiFi, revealed only my own device and the router.

Just thought folks might want to be aware of this potential exposure.