CHAPTER 3

ATTACKING 802.11 WIRELESS NETWORKS

Security on wireless networks has had a very checkered past. WEP, in particular, has been broken so many times that you would think people would quit getting worked up about it. This chapter covers tools and techniques to bypass security on networks prior to the use of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Where possible, attacks are presented on Linux, Windows, and OS X.

Basic Types of Attacks

Wireless network defenses fall into a few different categories. The first category—“totally ineffective,” otherwise known as security through obscurity—is trivial to break through for anyone who’s genuinely interested in doing so.

The next type of defense can be classified as “challenging.” Generally, WEP and ...

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