You already know that if you want to lock down your Wi-Fi network, you should opt for WPA encryption because WEP is easy to crack. But did you know how easy? Take a look.
Today
we're going to run down, step-by-step, how to crack a Wi-Fi network
with WEP security turned on. But first, a word: Knowledge is power, but
power doesn't mean you should be a jerk, or do anything illegal. Knowing
how to pick a lock doesn't make you a thief. Consider this post educational, or a proof-of-concept intellectual exercise.
Dozens
of tutorials on how to crack WEP are already all over the internet
using this method. Seriously—Google it. This ain't what you'd call
"news." But what is surprising is that someone like me, with minimal
networking experience, can get this done with free software and a cheap
Wi-Fi adapter. Here's how it goes.
What You'll Need
Unless
you're a computer security and networking ninja, chances are you don't
have all the tools on hand to get this job done. Here's what you'll
need:- A compatible wireless adapter - This is the biggest requirement. You'll need a wireless adapter that's capable of packet injection, and chances are the one in your computer is not.
- A BackTrack Live CD - The Linux Live CD that lets you do all sorts of security testing and tasks. Download yourself a copy of the CD and burn it, or load it up in VMware to get started.
- A nearby WEP-enabled Wi-Fi network - The signal should be strong and ideally people are using it, connecting and disconnecting their devices from it. The more use it gets while you collect the data you need to run your crack, the better your chances of success.
- Patience with the command line - This is an ten-step process that requires typing in long, arcane commands and waiting around for your Wi-Fi card to collect data in order to crack the password. Like the doctor said to the short person, be a little patient.
Crack That WEP
To
crack WEP, you'll need to launch Konsole, BackTrack's built-in command
line. It's right there on the taskbar in the lower left corner, second
button to the right. Now, the commands.
First run the following to get a list of your network interfaces:
airmon-ng
The only one I've got there is labeled
ra0.
Yours may be different; take note of the label and write it down. From
here on in, substitute it in everywhere a command includes (interface).
Now, run the following four commands. See the output that I got for them in the screenshot below.
airmon-ng stop (interface)
ifconfig (interface) down
macchanger --mac 00:11:22:33:44:55 (interface)
airmon-ng start (interface)
If you don't get the same results from these commands as pictured here, most likely your network adapter won't work with this particular crack. If you do, you've successfully "faked" a new MAC address on your network interface, 00:11:22:33:44:55.
Now it's time to pick your network. Run:
airodump-ng (interface)
To
see a list of wireless networks around you. When you see the one you
want, hit Ctrl+C to stop the list. Highlight the row pertaining to the
network of interest, and take note of two things: its BSSID and its
channel (in the column labeled CH), as pictured below. Obviously the
network you want to crack should have WEP encryption (in the ENC)
column, not WPA or anything else.
Like I said, hit Ctrl+C to stop this listing. (I had to do this once or twice to find the network I was looking for.) Once you've got it, highlight the BSSID and copy it to your clipboard for reuse in the upcoming commands.
Now we're going to watch what's going on with that network you chose and capture that information to a file. Run:
airodump-ng -c (channel) -w (file name) --bssid (bssid) (interface)
Where
(channel) is your network's channel, and (bssid) is the BSSID you just
copied to clipboard. You can use the Shift+Insert key combination to
paste it into the command. Enter anything descriptive for (file name). I
chose "yoyo," which is the network's name I'm cracking.
You'll
get output like what's in the window in the background pictured below.
Leave that one be. Open a new Konsole window in the foreground, and
enter this command:
aireplay-ng -1 0 -a (bssid) -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 -e (essid) (interface)
Here the ESSID is the access point's SSID name, which in my case is yoyo. What you want to get after this command is the reassuring "Association successful" message with that smiley face.
You're almost there. Now it's time for:
aireplay-ng -3 -b (bssid) -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 (interface)
Here
we're creating router traffic to capture more throughput faster to
speed up our crack. After a few minutes, that front window will start
going crazy with read/write packets. (Also, I was unable to surf the web
with the
yoyo network on a separate computer while this
was going on.) Here's the part where you might have to grab yourself a
cup of coffee or take a walk. Basically you want to wait until enough
data has been collected to run your crack. Watch the number in the
"#Data" column—you want it to go above 10,000. (Pictured below it's only
at 854.)
Depending on the power of your network (mine is inexplicably low at -32 in that screenshot, even though the
yoyo
AP was in the same room as my adapter), this process could take some
time. Wait until that #Data goes over 10k, though—because the crack
won't work if it doesn't. In fact, you may need more than 10k, though
that seems to be a working threshold for many.
Once
you've collected enough data, it's the moment of truth. Launch a third
Konsole window and run the following to crack that data you've
collected:
aircrack-ng -b (bssid) (file name-01.cap)
Here
the filename should be whatever you entered above for (file name). You
can browse to your Home directory to see it; it's the one with .cap as
the extension.
If you didn't get enough data, aircrack will fail and tell you to try again with more. If it succeeds, it will look like this:
The WEP key appears next to "KEY FOUND." Drop the colons and enter it to log onto the network.
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