Wireless Networks and Hacking

Wireless networks are based on IEEE 802.11 standards defined by IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for ad hoc networks or infrastructure networks. Infrastructure networks have one or more access points that coordinate the traffic between the nodes. But in ad hoc networks, there is no access point; each node connects in a peer-to-peer way.

Basically, there are two types of vulnerabilities that can be found in the Wireless LAN. One is the poor configuration and the other is poor encryption. The poor configuration is caused by the network admin who manages the network. It may include a weak password, no security settings, use of default configurations, and other user-related things. Poor encryption is related to security keys used to protect the wireless network. It is there because of issues in WEP or WPA.

What is WPA and WPA2

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) was the Wi-Fi Alliance’s direct response and replacement to the increasingly apparent vulnerabilities of the WEP standard. WPA was formally adopted in 2003, a year before WEP was officially retired. The most common WPA configuration is WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key). The keys used by WPA are 256-bit, a significant increase over the 64-bit and 128-bit keys used in the WEP system.

WPA has, as of 2006, been officially superseded by WPA2. One of the most significant changes between WPA and WPA2 is the mandatory use of AES algorithms and the introduction of CCMP (Counter Cipher Mode with Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol) as a replacement for TKIP. However, TKIP is still preserved in WPA2 as a fallback system and for interoperability with WPA.

WEP and WPA

WEP and WPA are the two main security protocols used in Wi-Fi LAN. WEP is known as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). It is a deprecated security protocol that was introduced back in 1997 as a part of the original 802.11 standards. But it was weak, and several serious weakness was found in the protocol. Now, this can be cracked within minutes. So, a new kind of security protocol was introduced in 2003. This new protocol was Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). It has mainly two versions, 1 and 2 (WPA and WPA2). Now it is the current security protocol used in wireless networks. To get unauthorized access to a network, one needs to crack these security protocols. There are many tools that can crack Wi-Fi encryption. These tools can either take advantage of WEP weaknesses or use bruteforce attacks on WPA/WPA2. I am sure now you know that you should never use WEP security.

Basically, wireless hacking tools are of two types. One of which can be used to sniff the network and monitor what is happening in the network. And other kinds of tools are used to hack WEP/WPA keys. These are the popular tools used for wireless password cracking and network troubleshooting.