Cracking WEP Encryption
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 5:00PM | Print Article It still amazes me how many wireless networks are left completely open or still rely upon Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption.
WEP was introduced in 1997 with the aim to provide equal levels of confidentiality as traditional wired networks. Unfortunately, by early 2001, a security weakness was discovered that allowed WEP to be cracked in just a few minutes, to make matters worse software is now available that makes the whole process no more then a few clicks.
Introducing KisMAC for Mac OS X. KisMac is an open source and free stumbler/scanner application which can also be used to crack WEP encryption.
One thing to note is that KisMac does not have a compatible driver for the standard Apple Airport wireless, therefore you will need to purchase a compatible wireless card before proceeding. Be sure to check the "KisMac compatible hardware list" for further details.
Once you have a compatible wireless card attached you need to select a compatible driver, from the menu bar select "Preferences > Driver" and pick the compatible driver shown in the list. Once complete click "Start Scan" from the bottom right hand corner of the KisMac main menu.
Once the scan has completed choose the WEP encrypted wireless network you want to crack, and from the menu bar select "network > Deauthenticate". Once complete select, again from the menu bar, "Network > Reinject packets". Finally once the "Unique IVs" number is high enough, you can select "Network > Crack" from the menu bar and pick your attack method.
To download KisMac for free head over to the KisMac wiki.
Please note, I don't advise anyone uses this software to crack a WEP encrypted wireless network. This article is simply designed to show how easy the process is and provide additional evidence that no one should be using WEP to secure their wireless network.