Nowadays, there are wireless hotspots everywhere! You can get internet access with a wireless enabled laptop almost everywhere you go. In this chapter I will discuss ways a hacker goes about getting into secure wireless networks and things he can do once he is inside.
Scanning for Wireless Networks
For this section and the following, you will need to have a wireless card/adapter. The hacker starts by scanning for wireless networks near him. The Windows tool we will use in this section is called NetStumbler. Also by the time you receive this eBook MacStumbler may already be released for those of you using a Mac. Some other similar programs are:
• Kismet for Windows and Linux.
• KisMac for the Mac.
1. Download and install NetStumbler.
2. Run it. It automatically starts to scan for wireless access points.
3. Once it is completed, you should see a list of all the wireless access points around you.
4. If you click on the MAC address of one of the discovered wireless networks under channels, you will see a graph that shows the wireless network’s signal strength. The more green and the less spaces, the better the signal.
5. As you can see NetStumbler provides a lot more than just the name (SSID) of the wireless network. It provides the MAC address, Channel number, encryption type, and a bunch more. All of these come in use when a hacker decides he wants to get in the secured network by cracking the encryption. The most common types of encryption are:
• WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) – WEP isn’t considered safe anymore. Many flaws have been discovered that allow a hacker to crack a WEP key easily.
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) – WAP is the currently the most secure and best option to secure your wireless network. It’s not as easily cracked as WEP because the only way to retrieve a WAP key is to use a brute-force or dictionary attack. If your key is secure enough, a dictionary attack won’t work and it could take decades to crack it if you brute-force it. This is why most hackers don’t even bother.
Scanning for Wireless Networks
For this section and the following, you will need to have a wireless card/adapter. The hacker starts by scanning for wireless networks near him. The Windows tool we will use in this section is called NetStumbler. Also by the time you receive this eBook MacStumbler may already be released for those of you using a Mac. Some other similar programs are:
• Kismet for Windows and Linux.
• KisMac for the Mac.
1. Download and install NetStumbler.
2. Run it. It automatically starts to scan for wireless access points.
3. Once it is completed, you should see a list of all the wireless access points around you.
• WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) – WEP isn’t considered safe anymore. Many flaws have been discovered that allow a hacker to crack a WEP key easily.
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) – WAP is the currently the most secure and best option to secure your wireless network. It’s not as easily cracked as WEP because the only way to retrieve a WAP key is to use a brute-force or dictionary attack. If your key is secure enough, a dictionary attack won’t work and it could take decades to crack it if you brute-force it. This is why most hackers don’t even bother.
i want to learn hacking
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