How to Hack Wireless Internet Connections in 3

How to Hack Wireless Internet Connections in 3 Easy Steps Presented By Joshua Johnson

How to Hack Wireless Internet Connections l 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. l Wireless access allows users to connect to the internet from any location within range of a wireless access point. l

Wireless Internet Equipment For home use, the basic equipment is: Wireless NIC card l Wireless router or access point l Internet access l

Advantages No wires l Mobility l Faster speeds l Widely available equipment l Convenience l Inexpensive to set-up l

Disadvantages Limited range l Interference with other wireless access points l Encryption can be broken even at its strongest l

Hacking Wireless Internet l 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 l The main source of vulnerability associated with wireless networks are the methods of encryption. There a few different type of wireless encryption including:

WEP l Stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. l Breakable even when configured correctly l Can be broken in as little as 3 minutes

WPA or WPA 2 l l l 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”. l 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. l

More info… Depending on how long the computer is connected, it can generate a certain number of packets per day. l The more users that are connected to one access point, the more packets are generated. l

First… You must locate the wireless signal l This can be done by using your default Windows tool “View Available Wireless Network” l More useful tools include Net. Stumbler and Kismet has an advantage over the other because it can pick up wireless signals that are not broadcasting their SSID. l

Second… Once you located a wireless network you can connect to it unless it is using authentication or encryption. l If it is using authentication or encryption the next step would be to use Air. Snort, a tool for sniffing out and cracking WEP keys. l

Air. Snort must gather about 5 to 10 million packets before it can even begin to crack a wireless key. l 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. l

Third… Once Air. Snort 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. l Other tools such as Cow. Patty can use dictionary files to crack hard WPA keys. l

Prevent Your Network from Getting Hacked l l l 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 l 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.

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