Hidden SSID

[bradL]

Hey, I'm new here. Anyways I'm a college student going into Computer Information Technology. Everyday I go into the campus cafe and use their wi-fi for about two hours every morning for about 4 days of the week. They recently made a rule about you have to buy stuff to use the wi-fi so I left there and found a unnamed network. How can I find it's SSID so I can use the internet? I have Vistumbler and Wireshark on my laptop could I use those programs to find it or do I need another one?

[Sparda]

Hey, I'm new here. Anyways I'm a college student going into Computer Information Technology. Everyday I go into the campus cafe and use their wi-fi for about two hours every morning for about 4 days of the week. They recently made a rule about you have to buy stuff to use the wi-fi so I left there and found a unnamed network. How can I find it's SSID so I can use the internet? I have Vistumbler and Wireshark on my laptop could I use those programs to find it or do I need another one?

airmon will tell you the SSID if it has a client connected to it.

[DingleBerries]

So will cain and able for windows

[Timmo]

cain and abel will only work if you are using a wild packets driver as windows standard drivers do not support the monitor mode required.

you could use linux with aircrack-ng pack and capture with airodump till someone connects or re-auths. u might also want to try using aireplay (also part of aircrack pack) to deauth. if u get stuck remember use the --help switch to find the syntax and switches

[bradL]

Ok thanks I'll check these out when I get a chance.

[Scorpion]

Shouldn't we be saying to this person to ask the owner of that network if he can be put on it (as this is saying that its ok for a random person to join a network that he isnt allowed) i dont want to be the bad person (i connect to unlocked networks and maybe tell them). I do hate it when companies make rules to say buy something then your allowed i say buy one thing and then go in the next day saying i've brought "this item" yesterday so your rule is still vaild and so am i :D (nothing saying you have to buy a item a day :D )

[Timmo]

well thats a really good point. but common sense should scream "ASK PERMISSION FROM THE OWNER FIRST". unless you want to have a whopping big fine for unauthorized access

I also remember there is a way to do it with wireshark and waiting for a client to connect (or deauthing clients using aireplay) and useing a filter but I can't remember the filter off the top of my head. I might have a look through my notes in the next couple of days.

[SWFu]

MDK3 has a bruteforce option

http://homepages.tu-darmstadt.de/~p_larbig/wlan/

[bradL]

to ask the owner of that network

I would but I don't know who the owners is, I've narrowed it down to be the 4-5 floor of our tech building.

[H@L0_F00]

Fire up the ol' BT3!!

Kismet and airodump-ng can find the hidden SSID when a client connects or with certain packets with no work on your part.

or you can deauthenticate a client using aireplay-ng but the above would be easier :)

(but you should ALWAYS :cough cough: ask the owner)

[RogueHart]

one of the wep cracking guides i read said that kismet will show hidden ssid's

[Timmo]

only when a client connects. if the access point is not broadcasting the ESSID then how will kismet see it when it only monitors any radio on the interface.

if you want ease then run kismet (or airodump-ng or even wireshark with the right filter) to listen for a connection but that can take a while and will be the only why to do it if there are no clients connected.

if there are clients connected then you can use the --deauth switch on aireplay-ng to deauthenticate all clients or just one and it takes no time but the drivers for your wireless card need to be patched for injection. (use google to find out how or boot up off backtrack as it most likely has your drivers already patched).