Does it have to be AirPcap?

[RogueCitizen]

The question I am posing is this; I have a Atheros AR5007 WiFi cad in my laptop. Is there any way to run this in a passive mode so that it can be used with programs like Netstumbler, Cain & Able, and the like. Or does it absolutely have to be a AirPcap adapter? Sorry if this was already a topic I didn't have time to search the forums my flight is boarding.

Thanks

-RC

[digip]

The question I am posing is this; I have a Atheros AR5007 WiFi cad in my laptop. Is there any way to run this in a passive mode so that it can be used with programs like Netstumbler, Cain & Able, and the like. Or does it absolutely have to be a AirPcap adapter? Sorry if this was already a topic I didn't have time to search the forums my flight is boarding.

Thanks

-RC

Passive or Promiscuous mode? I think you mean Promiscuous mode, as you should be able to do promiscuous mode on most cards by default. You probably are wanting to do Monitor mode though, which is where AirPcap comes in to play for windows.

Most cards should work with Netstumbler on Windows by default, as it doesn't need to be in monitor mode to do it's job of finding access points. Cain and Able just allow you do do MITM attacks, so as long as you are already on the access point, you use Cain to do the MITM attack and something like Wireshark to grab all the packets to search for things like passwords, etc, but should work with your card in promiscuous mode.

As for things like Monitor mode and packet injection, windows doesn't do monitor mode by default without an adapter designed for it. Otherwise, boot a linux distro and it will be able to put your card into promiscuous + monitor mode, but even then, only if the card is capable. You would need to check a linux HCL for the distro you use to see if it can do what you want. Most distro sites have info on what hardware was tested and has drivers for stuff. Even if a card is capable of monitor mode under linux, does not mean you can under windows as they do not have drivers written for windows to do this the same way you can in linux.

AirPcap is the only card I have seen for windows that can do monitor mode by default, as it is its main purpose anyway. http://www.cacetech.com/products/airpcap_f...reshark_Product

[RogueCitizen]

Thank you very much digip, That was pretty much everything I needed to know for the time being. I'm going to look into a suitable Linux distro for what I need to do.

Thanks again.

-RC

[Sparda]

I just want to clarify that the main reason for the airPcap adapter is it (in a way) 'guarantees' access to the physical layer of the adapter (from what I understand).

Most wireless adapters restrict access (either in drivers or firmware) to the 'lower' network layers (which you need access to do things like ARP spoof attacks and the like).

[thefatmoop]

from my understanding the company airpcap posts its drivers in a friendly version for programs like cain... although it's not mass produced...y it costs like 500$. i wanted to crack wifi and ended up going with backtrack 3. Atheros works great for backtrack

[DingleBerries]

I know i had a portable version of cain and able and all i did was copy the dll's into the root directory and it worked. may have to check ito it again but i know some programs will work in that way.

[digip]

I know i had a portable version of cain and able and all i did was copy the dll's into the root directory and it worked. may have to check ito it again but i know some programs will work in that way.

I have it on a USB drive and it works fine off of it. Just have to copy any DLL files it creates outside of its folder to its base folder when moving the files to a flash drive. EX: anything it creates in c:\windows\system32 folder, move to the base cain folder on the flash drive. I can't remember all the files it creates but that is what I remember doing to get it to work off the drive.