Proj 2: Ask A Lawyer Plaintext Login (15 pts)

What You Need for This Project

Purpose

To observe network transmissions from the Ask A Lawyer app, and prove that they are not encrypted.

Installing "Ask A Lawyer"

On your Android device, in Google Play, search for Lawyer.

Click on the "Ask a Lawyer app, as outlined in green in the image below. When I did it, it was the top hit.

If you scroll down on the app's main page, you will see that this is a highly-rated, popular app, with more than 100K downloads, as shown below.

At the top of the app page, click Install. Agree to what it asks and install the app.

Launch the app and click Login, as shown below.

Type in these values, but don't click the Login button yet:

as shown below.

Starting Wireshark

On your host system, launch Wireshark. If you don't have it, get it at:

https://www.wireshark.org/

In the main Wireshark window, double-click the network interface that is being used to reach the Internet. On my system, it is "Wi-Fi: en0", outlined in green in the image below.

Wirehark starts displaying packets. At the top, in the Filter bar, enter this display filter, replacing YOURNAME with a few letters from your own name, as shown below.

frame contains YOURNAME
Press Enter to filter the traffic.

On your Android device, click Login.

In the middle pane, expand the "HTML Form URL Encoded" section to see the captured name and password, as shown below.

Saving a Screen Image

Make sure the captured username and password are visible, as shown above.

Save a full-desktop image. On a Mac, press Shift+Commmand+3. On a PC, press Shift+PrntScrn and paste into Paint.

YOU MUST SUBMIT A FULL-SCREEN IMAGE FOR FULL CREDIT!

Save the image with the filename "YOUR NAME Proj 2", replacing "YOUR NAME" with your real name.

Troubleshooting

If you don't see any packets, as shown below,

Try these fixes:

  • Click the red square button to stop the capture
  • From the menu, click Capture, Options
  • Choose a different network adapter
  • If the "Link-layer header" is set to "802.11...", scroll to the right and uncheck the monitor box

Turning in your Project

Email the image to to cnit.128sam@gmail.com with the subject line: Proj 2 from YOUR NAME
Last modified 1-17-19