If you have a PC with a wireless network card, then you must
have seen many networks around you. Sadly most of these networks are
secured with a network security key.
Have you ever wanted to use
one of these networks? You must have desperately wanted to check your
mail when you shifted to your new house. The hardest time in your life
is when your internet connection is down.
Cracking those Wi-Fi
passwords is your answer to temporary internet access. This is a
comprehensive guide which will teach even complete beginners how to
crack WEP encrypted networks, easily.
Table of Contents
- How are Wireless networks secured?
- What you'll need
- Setting up CommView for Wi-Fi
- Selecting the target network and capturing packets
- Waiting...
- Now the interesting part... CRACKING!
- Are you a visual learner?
How Are Wireless Networks Secured?
In
a secured wireless connection, internet data is sent in the form of
encrypted packets. These packets are encrypted with network security
keys. If you somehow manage to get hold of the key for a particular
wireless network you virtually have access to the wireless internet
connection
Broadly speaking there are two main types of encryptions used:
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy):
This
is the most basic form of encryption. This has become an unsafe option
as it is vulnerable and can be cracked with relative ease. Although this
is the case many people still use this encryption.
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access):
This
is the more secure alternative. Efficient cracking of the passphrase of
such a network requires the use of a wordlist with the common
passwords. In other words you use the old fashioned method of trial and
error to gain access. Variations include WPA-2 which is the most secure
encryption alternative till date. Although this can also be cracked
using a wordlist if the password is common, this is virtually
uncrackable with a strong password. That is, unless the WPA PIN is still
enabled (as is the default on many routers).
Hacking WEP
passwords is relatively fast, so we'll focus on how to crack them for
this guide. If the only networks around you use WPA passwords, you'll
want to follow this guide on how to crack WPA WiFi passwords instead.
What You'll Need...
- A compatible wireless adapter:
This
is by far the biggest requirement.The wireless card of your computer
has to be compatible with the software CommVIew. This ensures that the
wireless card can go into monitor mode which is essential for capturing
packets.Click here to check if your wireless card is compatible
This software will be used to capture the packets from the desired network adapter.Click here and download the software from the website.
After capturing the packets this software does the actual cracking.Click here-Click here and download the software from the website.
- A little patience is vital!!
Step 1: Setting Up CommView for Wi-Fi
- Download
the zip file of CommView for Wi-Fi from the website. Extract the file
and run setup.exe to install CommView for Wi-Fi. When CommView opens for
the first time it has a driver installation guide. Follow the prompts
to install the driver for your wireless card.
- Run CommView for Wi-Fi.
- Click the play icon on the top left of the application window.
Start scanning for wireless networks.
CommView
now starts scanning for wireless networks channel by channel. After a
few minutes you will have a long list of wireless networks with their
security type and signal. Now it is time to choose your target network
Step 2: Selecting the Target Network and Capturing Packets
A few things to keep in mind before choosing the target wireless network
- This tutorial is only for WEP encrypted networks.
So make sure you select a network with WEP next to its name
- Choose a network with the highest signal.
- Each network will have its details in the right column.
- Make sure the WEP network you are choosing has the least the least dB (decibel) value.
Once you have chosen your target network,select it and click Capture to start capturing packets from the desired channel.
Now
you might notice that packets are being captured from all the networks
in the particular channel. To capture packets only from the desired
network follow the given steps.
- Right click the desired network and click on copy MAC Address.
- Switch to the Rules tab on the top.
- On the left hand side choose MAC Addresses
- Enable MAC Address rules
- For 'Action' select 'capture' and for 'Add record' select 'both'.
- Now paste the mac address copied earlier in the box below.
We
need to capture only data packets for cracking. Hence select D on the
bar at the top of the window and deselect M (Management packets) and C
(Control packets).
Now you have to save the packets so that they can be cracked later. To do this-
- Go to the logging tab on top and enable auto saving.
- Set Maximum Directory Size to 2000
- Set Average Log File Size to 20.
Step 3: Waiting...
Now the boring part- WAITING!
NOTE:
The amount of time taken to capture enough data packets depends on the
signal and the networks usage. The minimum number of packets you should
capture should be 100,000 for a decent signal.
After you think you have enough packets (at least 100,000 packets)
- Go to the log tab and click on concatenate logs.
- Select all the logs that have been saved.
- Do not close CommView for Wi-Fi
- Now navigate to the folder where the concatenated logs have been saved
- Open the log file
- Select File- Export -Wire shark tcpdump format and choose any suitable destination.
- This will save the logs with a .cap extension to that location
Now the Interesting Part... CRACKING!
- Download Aircrack-ng and extract the zip file.
- Open the folder and navigate to 'bin'.
- Run Aircrack-ng GUI
- Choose WEP
- Open your .cap file that you had saved earlier.
- Click Launch.
- In the command prompt type in the index number of your target wireless network.
- Wait for a while .If everything goes fine the wireless key will be shown.
You
may also receive a request to try with more packets. In this case wait
until more packets have been captured and repeat the steps to be
performed after capturing packets
BEST OF LUCK
