Wi-Fi Security Testing Tools
Attempting to “hack” into your own wireless network can help you
better understand Wi-Fi security vulnerabilities and how to protect
against them. Here are some Wi-Fi hacking techniques and the tools —
nearly all free — you can use for penetration testing. These tools will
help you uncover rogue access points, weak Wi-Fi passwords, and spot
other weaknesses and security holes before someone else does.
Stumblers and Sniffers: Vistumbler
Wi-Fi stumblers can detect nearby APs and their details, like the
signal level, security type, and MAC address. You might find APs set
with weak WEP security, which can be easily cracked, or possibly rogue
APs setup by employees or others that could be opening your network up
to attack. You can use wireless sniffers to capture raw network packets
sent over the air. You could import the captured traffic into other
tools, such as to crack encryption. Vistumbler is an open source Windows
application that displays the basic AP details, including the exact
authentication and encryption methods, and can even speak the SSID and
RSSI. It also displays graphs of signal levels. It’s highly customizable
and offers flexible configuration options. It supports AP names…
Stumblers and Sniffers: Kismet
Kismet is an open source Wi-Fi stumbler, packet sniffer, and
intrusion-detection system that can run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and
BSD. It shows the AP details, including the SSID of “hidden” networks.
It can also capture the raw wireless packets, which you can then import
into Wireshark, TCPdump, and other tools. In Windows, Kismet only works
with CACE AirPcap wireless adapters due to the limitation of Windows
drivers. It does, however, support a variety of wireless adapters in Mac
OS X and Linux.
Stumblers and Sniffers: Wifi Analyzer
Wifi Analyzer is a free Android app you can use for finding APs on
your Android-based smartphone or tablet. It lists the basic details for
APs on the 2.4-GHz band, and on supported devices on the 5-GHz band as
well. You can export the AP list (in XML format) by sending it to email
or another app or take snapshot of the screens. It also features graphs
showing signals by channel, history, and usage rating and also has a
signal meter feature to help find APs.
