How to Hack Wireless Network Nearby You..?
Wireless Network are accessible to anyone within the router's transmission radius. This makes them vulnerable to attacks. Hotspots are available in public places such as restaurant, parks, library and airports.
Notes: I'm posting this post just for Educational Purpose . I will not take any Responsibilities of misuse of this post.
In this tips and trick tutorial, we will introduce you to common techniques used to exploit weakness in wireless network security implementations. We will also look at some of the counter measures you can put in place to protect against such attack.
What is a wireless Network ?
A wireless network is a network that uses radio waves to link computers and other devices together.
The implementation is done at the layer 1 (Physical Layer) of the OSI model.
How to access a wireless network ?
You will need a wireless network enabled device such as a tablet, Smart phone, laptop etc.You will also need to be within the transmission radius of a wireless network access point. Most devices (if the wireless network option is turned on) will provide you with a list of available networks. If the network is not password protected, then you just have to click on connect. If it was password protection you will need password for connection.
Wireless Network Authentication
Since the network is easily accessible to everyone with a wireless network enabled devices, most networks are password protected. Let's look at some of the most commonly used authentication techniques.
WEP
WEP is the acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy It was Developed for IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards. It's goal was to provide the privacy equivalent to that provided by wired networks. WEP works by encrypting the data been transmitted over the network to keep it safe from eavesdropping.
WEP Authentication
Open System Authentication (OSA): This methods grants access to station authentication requested based on the configured access policy.
Shared key Authentication (SKA) : This method sends to an encrypted challenge to the station requesting access. The station encryption the challenge with its key then responds. If the encrypted challenge matches the AP value , then access is granted.
WEP Weakness
WEP has significant design flaws and vulnerabilities.
The integrity of the packets is checked using Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC32). CRC32 integrity check can be compromised by capturing at least two packets. The bits in the encrypted stream and the check sum can be modified by the attacker so that the packet is accepted by the authentication system. This leads to unauthorized access to the Network WEP used RC4 encryption algorithm to create stream ciphers. The stream cipher input is made up of an initial value (IV) and a secret key . The length of the initial value (IV) is 24 bit long while the secret key can be 40 bits or 104 bits long. The total length of both the initial value and secret value can be either be 64 bits or 128 bits long. The lower possible value of the secret key makes it easy to crack it. Weak initial values combinations do not encrypt sufficiently. This makes them vulnerable to attack. WEP is based on passwords, this makes it vulnerable to dictionary attack. Keys management is poorly implemented . Changing keys especially on large networks is challenging. WEP does not provide a centralized key management system. The initial values can be reused.Because of these security flaws, WEP has been deprecated in favor of WPA.
WPA
WPA is the acronym for Wi-Fi Protected access. It's a security protocol developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance in response to the weaknesses found in WEP. It is used to encrypt data on 802.11 WLANS.
It use higher initial values 48 bits instead of the 24 bits that WEP uses. It uses temporal keys to encrypt packets.
WPA Weaknesses
The collision avoidance implementation can be broken, It is vulnerable to denial of service attacks. Pre-shares keys use pass phrases, Weak pass phrases are vulnerable to dictionary attacks.
How to Crack Wireless Networks ?
WEP cracking
Cracking is the process of exploiting security weakness in wireless networks and gaining unauthorized access. WEP cracking refers to exploits on networks that use WEP to implement security controls. There are basically two types of crack namely:
Passive cracking :: This type of cracking has no effect on the network traffic until the WEP security has been cracked. It is difficult to detect.
Active cracking :: This type of attack has an increased load effect on the network traffic. It is easy to detect compared to passive cracking . It is more effective compared to passive cracking.
WEP Cracking Tools
Aircrack :: Network sniffer and WEP cracker.Can be download from this link Aircrack :: This is an open source program for breaking 802.11 WEP secret keys. It is an implementation of the FMS attack.
Kismet:: This can detect wireless networks both visible and hidden, sniffer packets and detect intrusions. This Can Be Download from here Kismet:
WebDecrypt:: This tools uses active dictionary attacks to crack the WEP keys. It has its own key generator and implements packet filters. Download Link Here WebDecrypt.
WPA Cracking Tools
WPA uses a 256 pre-shared key or pass phrased for authentications. Short pass phrases are vulnerable to dictionary attacks and other attacks that can be used to crack WPA keys.
CowPatty:: Thsi tools is used to crack pre-shared keys (PSK) using bruteforce attack. Download it here cowpatty.
Cain & Abel:: This tools can be used to decode capture files from other sniffing programs such as wireshark. The capture files may contain WEP or WPA-PSK encoded frames. Download Link Cain & abel.
General Attack type:
Sniffing :: This involves intercepting packets as they are transmitted over a network. The captured data can then be decoded using tools such as cain and abel.
Man in the middle attack :: This involves eavesdropping on a network and capturing sensitive information.
Denial of service Attack:: The main intent of this attack is to deny legitimate users network resources .
FataJack :: This attack can be used to perform this of attack. More on this article..↓
Cracking Wireless network WEP/WPA keys
It is possible to crack the WEP/WPA keys used to gain access to a wireless network. Doing so requires software and hardware resources, and patience. The success of such attack can also depend on how active and inactive the users of the target network are.
We will provide you with basic information that can help you to get start. Backtrack is a Linux based security operating system. It is developed on top of Ununtu. Backtrack comes with a number of security tools. Backtrack can be used to gather information, access vulnerabilities and perform exploits among other things.
Some of he popular tools that backtrack has includes::
Metasploit,WireShark,Aircrack-ng,NMap,Ophcrack etc.
Cracking wireless network keys requires patience and resources mentioned above. At a minimum, you will need the following tools:
A wireless network adapter with the capability to inject packets (Hardware)
Be within the target network's radius . If the user of the target network work are actively using and connecting to it, then your chances of cracking it will be significantly improved.
How to secure wireless Networks ?
In minimize wireless network attacks, an organization can adopt the following policies.
Changing default passwords that come with the hardware Enabling the authentication mechanism Access to the network can be restricted by allowing only registered MAC Addresses. Use of strong WEP and WPA-PSK keys, a combination of symbols, number and character reduces the chance of the keys been cracking using dictionary and brute force attacks. Intrusion detection system (IDS), systems such as WIDZ can help network scanning, association floods and Rogue APs.WIDZfirewall Software can also help reduce unauthorized access.
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