Security analysis and penetration testing is an integral part of creating any kind of secure network. This brings us to the WiFi hacking software that could be used for ethically testing a wireless network and make amends. In the past, we’ve already covered the top wireless security apps for Android and now it’s the turn of such tools for your PC. In case you’re looking for a more diverse collection of tools (not for just wireless analysis), you can refer to another list.
Important: Trying to tamper someone’s wireless or ethernet network without prior permission is a criminal offense. This list has been prepared for educational purposes and you’re advised to test these software on the device you own.
Top WiFi hacking tools for your Windows/Linux/Mac device
1. AirCrack
If you have a basic knowledge of ethical hacking or you’re interested to make a career in this field, chances are that you might have heard of AirCrack. Written in C language, this WiFi hacking software is a combination of lots of tools to access the security of a WiFi network. The different tools available as a part of the AirCrack suite can be used for tasks like monitoring, attacking, pen testing, and cracking. With the Aircrack-ng software, you can crack 802.11 WEP and WPA-PSK keys after capturing enough data packets. To make the attack faster and efficient, standard FMS attack, KoreK attack, and new PTW attack are implemented.
This cross-platform, command line tool is available for Linux, Windows, OS X, Windows, and BSD platforms.
2. Cain and Abel
In case you’re looking for a password recovery tool specifically for Microsoft’s Windows operating system, look no further than Cain and Abel. Named after the sons of Adam and Eve, this tool recovers the passwords using different methods like network packet sniffing and performing attacks like brute force, dictionary attack, and cryptanalysis. That’s not all, using this Windows WiFi hacking software, you can record VoIP conversations, decode scrambled passwords, get caches data, and get hold of routing protocols for ethical hacking purposes. One of the new features added to this useful tool is ARP support for sniffing on switched LANs and MITM attacks.
As said above, Cain and Abel is available for different versions of Microsoft Windows operating system.
3. Fern WiFi Cracker
As the name suggests, Fern WiFi Cracker tool is meant for analyzing your network, finding the loopholes, and plugging them to ensure maximum security. Written in Python programming language, this ethical hacking program can run different network-based attacks on ethernet and wireless. Its major highlights are WEP/WPA/WPA2/WPS cracking, session hijacking, MITM attacks, brute force attacks, etc.
You can use Fern WiFi Cracker on any Linux machine with different dependencies mentioned on the project page.
4. Reaver
If you know the actual strength of your WiFi security, you can take some actual steps to make it more secure. That’s where Reaver comes into play. It’s an open source and free WiFi password finder software that can crack most of the current routers’ passwords. Reaver uses a brute force attack against WPS PIN and gets back WPA/WPA2 passphrases. In case you’re wondering about its efficiency, it can recover a plain text passphrase in 4-10 hours. In practical situations, you can get results even sooner.
Reaver can be installed on Linux distributions. This tool also comes preinstalled in many ethical hacking distros, including Kali Linux.
5. Wireshark
Wireshark is undoubtedly the most famous network protocol analyzer around. While it won’t directly help you in recovering the plaintext passphrases, it can help you sniff the packets in the best possible manner. This software gives you the power to inspect hundreds of protocols and get the best results with the help of live capture and offline analysis. Not just wireless, Wireshark can capture live data from Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB, Token Ring, FDDI, etc.
Wireshark tool is available for all major platforms, including Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, BSD, etc.
6. Infernal Twin
The #6 entry on our list of best WiFi hacking software has a very interesting name. Called Infernal Twin, it’s an automated tool that can be used for wireless pen-testing. You can use it to automate Evil Twin attack, which creates a fake WiFi access point to sniff wireless communications. By using this tool, one can eavesdrop users using phishing and run man-in-the-middle attacks to target the intended user. Using this WiFi password hacker tool, one can target WPA2/WEP/WPA security, wireless social engineering, automatic report generation, etc.
This GPLv3 licensed security tool, written in Python, can be installed on Linux distros and used for a network audit and pentesting.
7. Wifisher
Wifisher is a WiFi security tool that has gained popularity in recent years. It could be used by hackers for carrying out automated and customized phishing attacks to infect the victims or obtain credentials. Please note that Wifisher doesn’t use attacks like brute force; instead, as the name suggests, it relies on social engineering techniques. This is done by redirecting all HTTP requests after carrying out a MITM attack using KARMA or Evil Twin attack.
While Wifisher can be used by most of the Linux distros, Kali Linux is the officially supported OS and all the new features are supported on this platform.
8. Hashcat/oclHashcat
While Hashcat is known as the world’s fastest CPU-based password cracking tool, it can be used perfectly to brute force WPA/WPA2 security. Before doing that, you can use tools like Reaver to collect shared keys and decrypt hashes. In case you are willing to make the WiFi hacking faster, you can go for oclHashcat to use the modern GPUs. This tool can be used with or without a wordlist for cracking.
It’s a cross-platform tool that can be used on Linux, Windows, and macOS for fast password recovery.
Honorable mentions:
That’s not all. There are tons of other WiFi security tools that you can use and make sure that your network is secure. Some more notable tools are: Wifite, KisMac, Bluepot, coWPAtty, Ghost Phisher.
Source:https://fossbytes.com/best-wifi-hacking-software-analysis-tools-computer/
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on application and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.
