Obtaining WPA/WPA2 information to crack

While this may not be a surprise at this point, we can quickly observe information passed in the clear over the air and use this to perform attacks against the WPA/WPA2 authentication process.

For a traditional authentication process using a 4-way handshake, we can observe the 4-way handshake process and use this to perform cracking of the PSK.

If using the PMKID process, we can capture PMKID information without a valid client and use this to perform cracking of the PSK.

Let’s focus on the 4-way handshake process first. Using a Wi-Fi adapter in monitor mode, and set to the correct channel, we can capture traffic, look for a device to connect to the network, and capture the 4-way handshake. During a live capture using a tool such as Wireshark, you can filter on eapol as a display filter to see the 4-way handshake during the live capture. Additionally, other tools such as bettercap or Kismet can observe the 4-way handshake process...