Wireless Hacking Fundamentals

Before you start the Wifi hacking, it is necessary to know some fundamentals and commands to be used in wireless hacking methods using Kali Linux. So let’s get started with them one by one. The types of wireless connection with different security mechanism are as follows:

1. Open wireless

--> No security

--> Any client can connect to Access Point

2. WEP

--> Wired Equivalent Privacy

--> Uses RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4) and Pre-Shared Key (contains hexadecimal digits)

3. WPA

--> Wifi Protected Access

--> Uses TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol)

4. WPA2

--> Wifi Protected Access 2

--> Uses CCMP (Counter mode with Cipher block Chaining Message authentication code protocol) encryption

--> Uses RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service Server) to manage client authentication

Some basic commands are as follows:

In Kali Linux --> Terminal

1. To view available access wireless interfaces

~# iwconfig

2. To scan nearby access points (To list down all the Access Points nearby)

~# iwlist wlan0 scan

Here, wlan0 --> Wireless interface

3. To put interface on monitor mode (It is like promiscuous mode in wireshark)

~# airmon-ng check

~# airmon-ng check kill

~# airmon-ng start wlan0

You have to run above three commands on after another. It will create a new interface as mon0 which will work in monitor mode.

Here, wlan0 --> Wireless interface

4. To get all the nearby Access Points and the clients associated with them

~# airodump-ng mon0

This will information regarding nearby Access Points like their BSSID, ESSID, Channel, Encryption, Authentication type and Cipher used.

Now,

BSSID --> MAC Address of the Access Point

ESSID --> Name of the Access Point

CH --> Channel number used for wireless networking

ENC --> Type of wireless security (Ex. WEP, WPA/WPA2, etc.)

AUTH --> Ex. PSK (Pre-Shared Key)

CIPHER --> Ex. CCMP encryption (Counter mode with Cipher block Chaining Message authentication code protocol)

STATION --> Wireless device (Client) connected to Access Point