Wifi direct data accessability

[g0drex]

Hello i have a question about the wifi direct data accessability. You can use wifi direct in 2 ways. 1 way is: when both devices use wifi direct which is a private connection. The other way is 1 device uses normal wlan and the other wifi direct to exchange data. Both connections are peer to peer if i understood it right.
I use the internet connection hosted by a person. But i have my own router with password to create wlan for me.
Now to my question: If you send data with wifi-direct and the device which send the data is connected to the normal wifi-internet and the other device which receives the data just uses wifi direct, is it possible for the internet owner to have access to the data send by this exchange. I think the owner can see what i did in the internet in general (like which sites i visited) but can he see the data i send with wifi direct when i used his internet for it (althought it should be peer to peer), or is the data locked somehow? I mean i didnt upload the data, right i just send it to a device but i used his internet/my router for it. I send the data by mistake that is why i used the wifi direct to wifi connection unintentionally.

Best regards

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Maybe it's me, but I'm having trouble following what's going on here. Do you have a decent diagram? By "wifi-direct" do you mean ad-hoc mode, and "normal" is infrastructure mode (i.e., the mode used to connect to an access point)?

In general, any node between the host and server can see and potentially collect any data that is not encrypted. This includes non-HTTPS web sessions (and even HTTPS still leaks the SNI), DNS queries not using DoT/DoH, many messaging apps, etc.

About the only way to completely hide data that is otherwise not encrypted is to use a VPN. However, that's not always the great solution many think it is. At some point somewhere, the connection has to come out the other end of the VPN to get to its final destination, and then it's just as exposed as it would have been otherwise. This may or may not be good enough for your usage.

 

[Nicklebon]

WIFI direct is just that. It is possible for a device to be connected to infrastructure wifi and still have a wifi direct link in fact FireTVs do just that. One has nothing to do with the other. Now that said, the rest your post make zero sense as there would be no Internet involved in any wifi direct communication. Typically wifi direct connections would be printer or handheld remote controls think short range bluetooth type connections. I would actually suggest turning that crap off everywhere it can be turned off but that's likely just me.

 

[g0drex]

Maybe it's me, but I'm having trouble following what's going on here. Do you have a decent diagram? By "wifi-direct" do you mean ad-hoc mode, and "normal" is infrastructure mode (i.e., the mode used to connect to an access point)?

In general, any node between the host and server can see and potentially collect any data that is not encrypted. This includes non-HTTPS web sessions (and even HTTPS still leaks the SNI), DNS queries not using DoT/DoH, many messaging apps, etc.

About the only way to completely hide data that is otherwise not encrypted is to use a VPN. However, that's not always the great solution many think it is. At some point somewhere, the connection has to come out the other end of the VPN to get to its final destination, and then it's just as exposed as it would have been otherwise. This may or may not be good enough for your usage.

Yes i mean the infrastructure mode with "normal wlan" but its still a peer to peer wifi-direct connection. In this mode you use the router to be a node.Is this connection is encrypted (the infrastructure wifi direct) ?

 

[g0drex]

WIFI direct is just that. It is possible for a device to be connected to infrastructure wifi and still have a wifi direct link in fact FireTVs do just that. One has nothing to do with the other. Now that said, the rest your post make zero sense as there would be no Internet involved in any wifi direct communication. Typically wifi direct connections would be printer or handheld remote controls think short range bluetooth type connections. I would actually suggest turning that crap off everywhere it can be turned off but that's likely just me.

Yes sry, my knowledge is very limited. I didn't know that althought the device uses the router somehow, its not connected/using the internet from the router. Thank you for explaining this fact.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

WIFI direct is just that. It is possible for a device to be connected to infrastructure wifi and still have a wifi direct link in fact FireTVs do just that. One has nothing to do with the other.

Huh. Somehow I either missed that development, or it was one of those "Hmm, that's interesting..." things I read about and then forgot. I've personally not ever come across it in the wild. It had sounded like a possible manufacturer's renaming of ad-hoc mode.

Yes i mean the infrastructure mode with "normal wlan" but its still a peer to peer wifi-direct connection. In this mode you use the router to be a node.Is this connection is encrypted (the infrastructure wifi direct) ?

The first three results of a Google search:
https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-direct
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-wi-fi-direct/

Each indicates that WPA2 is a part of the standard. However, the FAQ at the first link states that WiFi-Direct networks "can be protected", not that they must be. But I would think it odd for a modern device (at least one not crapped out to sell on AliExpress) to not include security. If you want to be certain, check the docs of your equipment and/or consult with their producers.