Internet is now a basic requirement of our daily life be it office or home. As a result, the Wi-Fi router and data connection have become a fundamental amenity for every user.

People also use wireless routers in their home network to connect all devices. However, using Wi-Fi could make your network visible to the neighborhood who may want to use it for free.

Similarly, big organizations that use Wi-Fi may want to keep a check on how the network is being utilized by its employees.

Although the wireless networks are secured with a password key, there are many Wifi hacking tools available that allow one to crack the password of any Wi-Fi protected with WAP, WAP2, and WPS protocol.

Suggested- Best Hacking Tools For Windows 10

In this article, we provide a list of top Wi-Fi hacking tools that can crack the networks to get you access.

These tools can also be used to recover the lost password of your own Wi-Fi.

Is It Possible To Hack WiFi?

Yes, it’s possible to hack WiFi using certain tools and software.

You can even hack WiFi using an Android smartphone, Windows or Linux PC.

However, hacking and using someone else’s WiFi connection without their consent is illegal in a wide variety of nations. Unauthorized access to a WiFi network is considered a criminal offense in different parts of the world.


Top 15 Wi-Fi Hacking Tools

  • Aircrack-ng
  • WiFi WPS WPA Tester
  • Cain & Abel
  • Kismet
  • AirSnort
  • NetStumbler
  • Airjack
  • inSSIDer
  • CoWPAtty
  • WepAttack
  • Wireshark
  • Wifnite
  • Wifiphiser
  • Airgeddon
  • Rfa

1. Aircrack-ng

Aircrack-ng

Aircrack-ng is one of the most popular wireless passwords cracking tools, which can help you crack passwords by cracking WEP Keys of Wi-Fi 802.11b network.

Aircrack uses the best algorithms to recover wireless passwords by capturing packets. Once enough packets have been gathered, it tries to recover the password. To make the attack faster, it implements a standard FMS attack with some optimizations.

The company behind the tool also offers an online tutorial where you can learn how to install and use this tool to crack wireless passwords. It comes as Linux distribution, Live CD and VMware image options. You can use any of these. It supports most of the wireless adapters and is almost guaranteed to work.

If you are using a Linux distribution, the only drawback of the tool is that it requires a deeper knowledge of Linux.

When you are not comfortable with Linux, you will find it hard to use this tool. In this case, try Live CD or VMWare image. VMWare Image needs less knowledge, but it only works with a limited set of host OS, and only USB devices are supported.

Before you start using this tool, confirm that the wireless card can inject packets. Then start WEP cracking. Read the online tutorial on the website to know more about the tool. If you will follow steps properly, you will end up getting success with this tool.


2. WiFi WPS WPA Tester

WiFi WPS WPA Tester

WPA WPS Tester is one of the most popular Wi-Fi password hacker tools known for breaking the security and works on both rooted and Android devices. This app tests the connection to Access Points with WPS PIN and needs Android 4.0 and up for running.

It relies on several algorithms involving MAC addresses and the inbuilt database to calculate the pins. You will need root permissions to realize its full potential.


3. Cain & Abel

Cain & Abel

Cain & Abel is a popular password cracking tool developed to intercept network traffic and then discover passwords by brute-forcing them using cryptanalysis attack methods.

It can also recover wireless network keys by analyzing routing protocols. If you are trying to learn wireless security and password cracking, you should once try this tool.

The last official update of the hacking tool was around seven years ago. Its active development has been stopped as the developers have moved on to other things in life.


4. Kismet

Kismet

Kismet is a packet sniffer, network detector and intrusion detection system for 802.11 wireless local area networks. It works with any Wi-Fi card, which supports rfmon mode, Bluetooth interfaces, a few of the SDR(Software Defined Radio), and other hardware like RTLDSR, along with several of the capture hardware.

It passively collects packets to identify networks and detect hidden networks. It can also sniff 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n traffic. It is built on client/server modular architecture. It is available for Linux, OSX, Windows and BSD platforms.

With their recent update, Kismet now supports plugins that can extend enhance WebUI functionalities and other accompanying features through Javascript.

They have also added “helper” tools that provide extra server functionality through Python scripting.


5. AirSnort

AirSnort

AirSnort is another popular tool for decrypting WEP encryption on a Wi-Fi 802.11b network. It is a free tool and comes with Linux and Windows platforms. This tool is no longer maintained, but it is still available to download from Sourceforge.

AirSnort works by passively monitoring transmissions and computing encryption keys once it has enough packets received. This tool is simple to use and does not require any kind of network expertise. If you are interested, you can try this tool to crack WEP passwords.


6. NetStumbler

NetStumbler

NetStumbler is one of the well-known Windows tools to find open wireless access points. This tool is free and available for Windows.

A trimmed-down version of the tool is also available known as MiniStumbler. Basically, NetStumbler is used for wardriving, verifying network configurations, finding locations with a poor network, detecting unauthorized access points, and more.

The free WIFI hacking tool is no longer being maintained but available for download from the website, whose address is updated after the last earlier one down.


7. Airjack

Airjack

Airjack is a Wi-Fi 802.11 packet injection tool, which is very useful in injecting forged packets and making a network down by denial of service attack. This tool can also be used for a man in the middle attack in the network.

For launching the tool, you will need C installed on your computer. Then unzip the Airjack files and extract them in a folder.

After that, you need to scan for the available WIFI networks and then select the network which you want to intercept.


 8. inSSIDer

inSSIDer

inSSIDer is a wireless network scanner designed to overcome the limitation of another tool, which is NetStumbler. Initially, the tool was open source but now its premuim costs $19.99.

The inSSIDer Wi-Fi scanner can do various tasks, including finding open Wi-Fi access points, tracking signal strength, saving logs with GPS records, collect data from wireless card and software, choose the best wireless channel available and more.

inSSIDER has been acquired by Metageek. You will need to create a free Metageek account in order to log in and use the WIFI hacking tool on your computer.


9. CoWPAtty

CoWPAtty

CoWPAtty is an automated dictionary attack tool for WPA-PSK that runs on Linux OS. This program has a command line interface and runs on a word-list that contains the password to use in the attack.

The tool is really simple to use, but it is slow. That’s because the hash uses SHA1 with a seed of SSID. It means the same password will have a different SSIM. So, you cannot simply use the rainbow table against all access points. So, the tool uses the password dictionary and generates the hack for each word contained in the dictionary by using the SSID.

The new version of the tool tried to improve the speed by using a pre-computed hash file. This pre-computed file contains around 172000 dictionary file for around 1000 most popular SSIs. But if your SSID is not in those 1000, you are unlucky.


10. WepAttack

WepAttack

WepAttack is an open-source Linux tool for breaking 802.11 WEP keys. This tool performs an active dictionary attack by testing millions of words to find the working key. Only a working WLAN card is required to work with WepAttack which present on virtually all the computers.

Also Read: Easily Hack WiFi Password Using New WPA/WPA2 flaw


11. Wireshark

Wireshark is a very popular network analyzer that can be used as a WIFI hacking tool. You can take a microscopic look at the network connections without charging a penny like inSSIDER. The network hacking tool was developed by hundreds of volunteers for various platforms.

Wireshark - Wifi Hacking tool

Often when using different tools, we tend to rely on YouTube for finding tutorials. That would not be the case here with their extension knowledgebase tutorials, which include several video guides.

You can head straight to the official YouTube channel to find full-fledged video series on using the tool on different platforms.

Coming to the features, you can deep inspect hundreds of different network protocols. We also get live capture along with offline analysis in various formats such as tcdump, Catapult DCT2000, and Pcap NG, amongst dozens of others.

You can view all the captured data using the GUI or the TTY-mode TShark utility.


12. Wifite2

Wifite2 is the complete re-write of the original Wifite in the Python script for auditing and hacking WIFI networks. It is a Linux-only network tool, available for several distros, designed explicitly for Kali Linux and ParrotSec.

Wifinite hack tool

There is no graphical user interface on this network hacking tool. You get a command-line interface and a list of commands to use.

Before going forward, we need to make sure that your device’s wireless network card is capable of “monitor mode.” Aircrack has a tutorial on finding it out on your own. If it is not available, you can go with after-market wireless cards through USB. 

You will need Aircrack-ng suite, ifconfig, and iwconfig for Wifite to work. There are several optional tools such as shark, reaver, amongst others, to augment the chances. 

This open-source WIFI hacking tool supports 5 GHz networks on a few wireless cards. The support is in its nascent stage, but it’s seeing improvement. It supports the Brute-Force attack in WPS offline and online through Pixie-Dust and Pin Attack. 

All the cracked passwords and handshakes are in the current directory. 

 


13. Wifiphiser

Next up, we have a man-in-the-middle attack on a WIFI network. Wifiphiser is a rogue access point network framework that can conduct red team engagements and WIFI penetration testing.

Wifiphisher WIFI hack tool

Similar to Wifite, this program is also available exclusively for Linux. You will need a working wireless adaptor with Monitor and AP mode.

Here the WIFI network hack tool can achieve a man-in-the-middle attack position with ease on wireless networks using targeted WIFI-associated attacks.

That is not all, it can run for hours on Raspberry Pi devices while executing the latest techniques such as “Evil Twin,” “KARMA,” and “Known Beacons.”

A plethora of community-driven phishing templates is available with the tool for deployment in different scenarios. Users can also write complicated Python driven scripts to create new phishing scenario templates for conducting target-oriented attacks.

There are several phishing templates of drivers and router firmware updates that are ready to use. You can take a leaf out of the booklet and modify them according to the requirements at hand.

Wifiphisher offers an interactive textual interface, a much-needed relief from the mundane command-line offered by other tools.

State-of-the-art attack methods like “Known Beacons” and “Lure10” along with other phenomenal techniques were introduced by the developers and immediately incorporated into the tool.


14. Rfa

You are out in public, often seeing tons of WIFI networks but password protected. You can use Rfa, a WIFI hacking tool for Android that can brute-force a password-protected WIFI network.

Rfa WIFI hacking

Rfa is essentially Reaver for Android, which is a GUI version of the Reaver tool for the smartphone OS. It comes with monitor mode support.

Recover WPA/WPA2 passphrases/pins and compromise the WPS implementations on any kind of router. Officially takes an average of 4 to 10 hours through the online brute-force method.

In reality, the time is significantly shorter and almost half of the official estimation to guess the WPS pin and get ahold of the passphrase.

On the other hand, using an offline attack may take seconds or a few minutes when the AP is vulnerable.

As a Reaver veteran user, you can rest assured that all the features are available through the GUI. It takes a second to activate/deactivate Monitor mode.

Wait up; it gets even better here. Rfa also supports external scripts, paving the way for additional capabilities. You are not bogged down by the tool’s limitations anymore.

Now that we are done with the features let’s talk installation. You need to install bcmon.apk before going ahead with rfa.apk. The bcmon file can also be downloaded directly when opening the rfa.apk.


15. airgeddon

After a brief pitstop at Android station, we are back to Linux with airgeddon. An actively developing WIFI hacking tool.

airgeddon - wifi hacking tool

Unlike other network hacking tools, here, we get full support for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands right out of the box. Make sure your device’s wireless network card supports all the required bands.

airgeddon not only captures WPA/WPA2 personal handshake network attacks but cleans the captured files. This makes things a lot easier when dealing with multiple networks.

All the offline password decryption on the captured files of WPA/WPA2 (Handshakes and PMKIDs) rely on dictionary attacks. For rule-based and brute-force attacks, the tool relies on aircrack, hashcat, and crunch tools.

You can also drag and drop files directly into the console window to make inputs and entering file paths easier. This comes with an auto-sizing console window that detects the resolution on its own and adjusts accordingly.

The WIFI hacking tool also offers quick deployments and implementation through using the docker image. You can either use the already built image on the Docker hub or create your own.

Thanks to the auto-updating, we also don’t have to worry about having the latest versions. It will upgrade to the latest available versions from the servers in the background.

Saving the best for the last, we also have access to the plugin system. Based on the hook system, users can create their custom plugins for adding new functionalities to the hacking tool.


Is it Illegal to Hack WIFI?

Hacking or accessing someone’s WIFI to use the Internet without consent is a crime in virtually every part of the world. It is treated as a misdemeanor in most cases unless you are attempting to hijack a person’s network for snooping on emails, web activity, and more.

You can check with a legal expert on the prevailing law in your region to understand the extent of criminal wrongdoing in accordance with the regulations.

Disclaimer Techworm.net or the author of this article does not condone hacking, hijacking, or any illegal activity in any capacity. The article is intended for educational purposes for spreading the ethical usage of the tools for securing the network.


Over to You

We discussed some of the best WIFI hacking tools to hack any WIFI and use the Internet. In addition to the above mentioned apps and tools there are several other tools that can be used to hack a Wi-Fi network.