How to Hack Wireless Internet Connections in 3 Easy Steps
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This presentation is intended to inform the audience about methods used to “hack” wireless internet connections, not for any malicious use but strictly for educational purposes and personal intentions such as recovering a misplaced network key for the users own wireless connection.
This presentation is intended to inform the audience about methods used to “hack” wireless internet connections, not for any malicious use but strictly for educational purposes and personal intentions such as recovering a misplaced network key for the users own wireless connection.
Wireless Internet
- lThe term “wireless internet” is perfectly self-explanatory. It is internet access without the use of wires. Instead it uses radio frequency bands to exchange information between your computer and the Internet.
- Wireless access allows users to connect to the internet from any location within range of a wireless access point.
Wireless Internet Equipment
For home use, the basic equipment is:
lWireless NIC card
- Wireless router or access pointl
- Internet access
Advantagesl
- No wires l
- Mobilityl
- Faster speedsl
- Widely available equipmentl
- Convenience
- lInexpensive to set-up
Disadvantages
- lLimited rangel
- Interference with other wireless access points
- Encryption can be broken even at its strongest
Hacking Wireless Internet
Wireless networks are very common. It is also very common to find wireless networks that are unsecured. Maybe the users are lazy or maybe they are not savvy when it comes wireless networks. Whatever the reason, hackers have found wireless networks relatively easy to break into, and even use wireless technology to crack into non-wireless networks.
Wireless Encryption
lThe main source of vulnerability associated with wireless networks are the methods of encryption. There are a few different type of wireless encryption including:
AirSnort
There is no such thing as 100% percent security when using wireless networks but at least with these few simple steps you can make it harder for the average person to break into your network.
WEP
lStands for Wired Equivalent Privacy.Breakable even when configured correctly
lCan be broken in as little as 3 minutes
WPA or WPA2
lStands for Wi-Fi Protected Access.lCreated to provide stronger security.lStill able to be cracked if a short password is used.If a long passphrase or password is used, these protocol are virtually uncrackable.
lEven with good passwords or phrases, unless you really know what your doing, wireless networks can be hacked and here’s how…….
Note#
When a user uses wireless internet they generate what are called data “packets”.
lPackets are transmitted between the wireless NIC card and the wireless access point via radio waves whenever the computer is connected with the access point.
lDepending on how long the computer is connected, it can generate a certain number of packets per day.
lThe more users that are connected to one access point, the more packets are generated.
Step1:-
lYou must locate the wireless signal
This can be done by using your default Windows tool “View Available Wireless Network”
lMore useful tools include NetStumbler and Kismet. Kismet has an advantage over the other because it can pick up wireless signals that are not broadcasting their SSID.
Step2:-
lOnce you located a wireless network you can connect to it unless it is using authentication or encryption.
lIf it is using authentication or encryption then the next step would be to use AirSnort, a tool for sniffing out and cracking WEP keys.
AirSnort
lAirSnort must gather about 5 to 10 million packets before it can even begin to crack a wireless key.
lThis could take anywhere between a few minutes to a few weeks depending on how many packets are being generated. If a small number of people are using the network then it will most likely take weeks.
Step3:-
lOnce AirSnort has recovered enough packets it will then go to work on reading the captured information gathered from the packets and crack the key giving you access.
lOther tools such as CowPatty can use dictionary files to crack hard WPA keys.
Prevent Your Network from Getting Hacked
lDon’t broadcast your SSID . This is usually done during the setup of your wireless router.
lChange the default router login to something else.
lIf your equipment supports it, use WPA or WPA 2 because it offers better encryption which is still able to be broken but much harder.
lAlways check for updates to your router.
lTurn off your router or access point when not using it.