Download Report

How to Hack Wireless Internet
Connections in 3 Easy Steps
Presented
By
Joshua Johnson
How to Hack Wireless Internet
Connections

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
The 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:
Wireless NIC card
 Wireless router or access point
 Internet access

Advantages
No wires
 Mobility
 Faster speeds
 Widely available equipment
 Convenience
 Inexpensive to set-up

Disadvantages
Limited range
 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

The main source of vulnerability
associated with wireless networks are the
methods of encryption. There are a few
different type of wireless encryption
including:
WEP

Stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy.
Breakable even when configured correctly
 Can be broken in as little as 3 minutes

WPA or WPA2





Stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access
Created to provide stronger security
Still able to be cracked if a short password is
used.
If a long passphrase or password is used, these
protocol are virtually uncrackable.
Even with good passwords or phrases, unless
you really know what your doing, wireless
networks can be hacked and here’s how…….
A little info…
When a user uses wireless internet they
generate what are called data “packets”.
 Packets are transmitted between the
wireless NIC card and the wireless access
point via radio waves whenever the
computer is connected with the access
point.

More info…
Depending on how long the computer is
connected, it can generate a certain
number of packets per day.
 The more users that are connected to one
access point, the more packets are
generated.

First…
You must locate the wireless signal
 This can be done by using your default
Windows tool “View Available Wireless
Network”
 More 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.

Second…
Once you located a wireless network you
can connect to it unless it is using
authentication or encryption.
 If 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
AirSnort must gather about 5 to 10 million
packets before it can even begin to crack
a wireless key.
 This 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.

Third…
Once 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.
 Other tools such as CowPatty can use
dictionary files to crack hard WPA keys.

Prevent Your Network from Getting
Hacked





Don’t broadcast your SSID . This is usually
done during the setup of your wireless router.
Change the default router login to something
else.
If your equipment supports it, use WPA or WPA 2
because it offers better encryption which is still
able to be broken but much harder.
Always check for updates to your router.
Turn off your router or access point when not
using it.
Prevent Your Network from Getting
Hacked

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.
THE END