Cracking WPA2-PSK Passwords Using Aircrack-Ng
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers.
When Wi-Fi was first developed in the late 1990s, Wired Equivalent Privacy was created to give wireless communications confidentiality. WEP, as it became known, proved terribly flawed and easily cracked. You can read more about that in my beginner's guide to hacking Wi-Fi.
As a replacement, most wireless access points now use Wi-Fi Protected Access II with a pre-shared key for wireless security, known as WPA2-PSK. WPA2 uses a stronger encryption algorithm, AES, that's very difficult to crack—but not impossible. My beginner's Wi-Fi hacking guide also gives more information on this.
The weakness in the WPA2-PSK system is that the encrypted password is shared in what is known as the 4-way handshake. When a client authenticates to the access point (AP), the client and the AP go through a 4-step process to authenticate the user to the AP. If we can grab the password at that time, we can then attempt to crack it.
Image via Shutterstock
In this tutorial from our Wi-Fi Hacking series, we'll look at using aircrack-ng and a dictionary attack on the encrypted password after grabbing it in the 4-way handshake. If you're looking for a faster way, I suggest you also check out my article on hacking WPA2-PSK passwords using coWPAtty.
Step 1: Put Wi-Fi Adapter in Monitor Mode with Airmon-Ng
Let's start by putting our wireless adapter in monitor mode.
Need a wireless network adapter? Buy the Best Wireless Network Adapter for Wi-Fi Hacking in 2017
For this to work, we'll need to use a compatible wireless network adapter. Check ou
Give Same Suggestion