Hacking and its consequences: – Hacking is frowned upon and illegal in almost all the countries across the globe and should not be done for illegal purposes.

Note: This article is for educational purposes only and should be used to find and fix vulnerabilities in your own network. Under no circumstances, should you use these programs to gain illegal access to other wireless networks.

Hacking Wifi

Hacking anything starts with the simple process of finding vulnerabilities and then using them to gain access. Similarly, there are many types of vulnerabilities that you can find among Wifi protocols.

-> Poor Configuration

These are lapses and loopholes in the configuration of any wireless network. Any wireless network, when beinG setup, has its own default values and settings to ensure easy setup. Often users that are not familiar with this aspect tend to keep the same default values/settings, without any knowledge about it. This becomes a free gateway for any kind of attack as these default values are often known by attackers, or if not known, then are easily available by monitoring the network.

– > Poor Encryption

These are security lapses, and loopholes in the encryption of your passwords or data.

These can be because of the poor choice of passwords or simply because of the use of a weak security protocol. Weak security protocols are like invitations to wireless attacks and hence should be maintained regularly.

Wifi Security Protocols

– WEP and WPA

WEP stands for = Wired Equivalent Privacy

WPA stands for = Wi-fi Protected Access

WEP is an obsolete Wi-fi Lan security protocol, used back in the 1990s during the onset of Wireless technology. The protocol was found to be seriously vulnerable and weak. Soon hackers and other malicious users were able to take advantage of this and carry out unethical tasks. Hence soon WPA protocols were introduced in the beginning of 2000s to provide users with more protection when compared to the WEP protocol. This new protocol was available in two different versions, WPA 1 and 2. These protocols are the current security protocols used in wireless machines today, to ensure proper security of your network.

Read also : How to hack someone Facebook account

Hence To gain access to any Wifi network, you would either have to bypass WEP or WPA protocol, depending on the one that is active. To bypass or crack the security protocols you can either take advantage of WEP weakness or continuously attack WPA1 or WPA2 to ultimately gain access to the wi-fi network.

You can also use key loggers and other monitoring tools to gain access to the network, if you are unable to crack the WEP/WPA security protocols.

Below is the list of programs you can use to find vulnerabilities in your wireless network and gain unauthorized access.

Note: This Content Is For Educational Purposes Only

Use of these programs for unethical purposes is not recommended and advised against. The writer or the blog will not be responsible for any illegal activities due to this content. The user is advised to maintain ethical standards and use the software at his or her own risk.

Also read: How to know your forgotten wifi password in windows 10

Top Free wi-fi Hacking tools

1- AirCrack

This is one of the most popular and famous programs out there to crack any wifi network with WEP or WPA security protocols. AirCrack is one of the best password cracking tools out there and uses state of the art algorithms to capture different packets of data from the wireless network over time, and once enough packets of data have been collected, the software will then go into the process of recovering the password.

The developers of the program offer online tutorials to help you crack wireless networks efficiently without any hinderances. The software is available for all operating systems in either the Linux distribution format, Live CD or simply a VMware image. The image and CD have their own Limitations, which you should look into before proceeding ahead.

2- AirSnort

This is another great wifi password crackinG tool trusted by many users around the globe. AirSnort can decrypt any type of WEP encryption from a wifi network helping you gain access to that network. The software is totally free of cost and is available for Linux users and Windows users as well. The tool is a very simple program with simple processing instructions. The tool is designed to passively collect and monitor different transmissions from the wireless network and then processing the data to gain access to the network once enough packets have been collected.

The only drawback is because of the simplicity of the tool, it is no longer maintained, but still available for download.

3- Cain and Able

This is a very popular password cracking tool appreciated by many security analysts, worldwide. The tool is developed by its developers to intercept and monitor the network traffic. Upon finding the right type of content, the program is then designed to recover the assword by using the brute force of cryptanalysis attack methods. If the attacks do not work and are about to get your caught, you can use the security protocol and routing protocol manager, to search and find vulnerabilities. All in all this is another great program for testing all your network’s security In one go, and looking for vulnerabilities if any.

4- Kismet

This is a wireless network sniffer and an IDS. IDS stands for Intrusion Detection System. The program can analyze wi-fi 802.11 a/g/b/n layer 2 and find vulnerabilities in it. The tool can crack any wireless network that supports Radio Frequency Monitoring. The tool will collect packets of data until enough data has been collected to crack the network. The program can even detect and identify hidden networks, and find vulnerabilities in them for your security needs. The software is available for all platforms including Linux, Mac, Windows and BSD platforms as well.

All in all it is another great tool to look for loopholes and vulnerabilities in your wireless network.

5- NetStumbler

This is another great program to be able to find open wireless access points in any wireless network. The tool is absolutely free of cost and is available for all Windows users. The program is feature packed with different tools and other utilities to help you with all your security configuration needs.

There is a light version of the tool, called the miniNetStumbler. The trimmed down, light version of the tool, might be useful for some of you.

NetStumbler can be used to look for and find all these different types of vulnerabilities and lapses in the security configuration.

– wardriving

– Verifying configurations

– Areas of poor network and connections

– Unauthorized access points

Etc.

The tool has only one major drawback

– The tool is only compatible with 32 bit versions of Windows and not 64 bit.

All in all it is another great program for finding vulnerabilities in your wireless network.

6- InSSIDer

InSSIDer is another popular tool for both Windows and Mac Operating Systems . The tool was open source in its early stages and was hugely awarded for being the best in its category. The tool now costs 19.99$ and has various premium features that make it exceptionally great. The program is a wi-fi scanner and can be useF for many various purposes. The program can easily find open access points, vulnerabilities, save different logs, and even track the signal strength for detailed analysis.

All in all InSSIDer is another great tool for security analysis and testing the vulnerability of your wireless network.

7- WireShark

This is another great program for testing the Stability of your wireless network. WireShark is a network protocol analyzer, which lets you check and monitor all the activity taking place on your network. Apart from capturing outgoing packets for self analysis by the program, you can also capture packets in real time, and look for vulnerabilities and analyze them yourself. You can analyze and break apart the data till you hit the micro level. The software provides you with ultimate precession and detail to ensure the best of results.

The program supports all major platforms including Windows, Linux, Max OS, Solaries, FreeBsd and many more.

WireShark is recommended for advanced users as the tool requires manual assessment of every captured data packet and hence might prove to be too much for all those new to this field.

All in all WireShark is another great network protocol analyzer for finding vulnerabilities in your wireless network.

8- CoWPAtty

This is an automated attack tool that targets WPA-PSK protocol of the wireless network. The program is highly efficient and is compatible only with Linux. The tool even has a command line interface and runs on a list of words.

This list also contains the password to be used in the attack.

The tool is very simple to use without any complications. The only drawback being that due to the decryption of SSID encryption ,the process takes a lot longer than you can expect. This is because of the process used by your program, in simple words, the program has to go through a dictionary of words and match it to the submitted password in order to try and crack the security protocol.

In the latest installment of the program, the developers tried to reduce the waiting time by including around 1000 of the most popular SSIs . This means that if your SSID is not included in the 1000 popular ones, you will have to wait a bit longer for the process to finish.

9- AirJack

AirJack is another popular tool for password recovery. The tool is basically designed around the concept of a packet injection tool, which can inject infected/specifically designed packets in a network to have the desired effect.

You can also transmit forged packets into the network to try and take it down.

This tool can also aid for testing a “man in the middle” attack as well.

All in all AirJack is another great packet injection tool which can be used to check the integrity of your wireless network.

10- WepAttack

This is a very simple, to the point, WEP key breaking tool for all Linux users. This tool simply performs an active dictionary check attack on the password by checking it against millions of entries that make an entire dictionary.

The only requirement is of a working WlAN card.

All in all WEPAttack is another great tool to check your wireless network for security lapses and ensure that it is secure.

11- OmniPeek

OmniPeek is a packet sniffer and also a network analyzing tool. The tool is sold for a small amount of fee and thus classifies as a commercial package. The tool requires you to be familiar with network protocols and different techniques of network analysis. This is because the tool is designed for professional users and will be confusing for beginners. The tool is used to capture and

Analyze the wireless traffic data for vulnerabilities and holes in the security. The tool is compatible with almost all the WLAN cards hence you don’t have to worry about compatibility much too often.

12- CommView for Wi-Fi

This is another wireless monitoring and packet analyzing tool available for download. The program has an easy to use User Interface which is a huge plus side when it comes to such tools and programs. Usually security testing and vulnerability finding programs do not have a descriptive and easy to use UI. The tool is designed to capture important packets containing important data and display them as an easy to read and understand list.

Packets can be easily defined using user defined WPA/WEP keys.

All in all this is another great tool to monitor and look after your wireless network, wether you are a home user or a network professional.

Note: – These were the top programs to test the security of your wireless network and test it for vulnerabilities.

These programs should be used responsibly and should not be misused for illegal purposes.

Any legal issue or problem faced by you because of this content does not concern the writer of the blog.

Use the tools responsibly.