Home
Want to take advantage of your neighbor's super fast Wi-Fi connection? If they're
smart, they probably have it password protected (otherwise you wouldn't be reading
this, would you?). But if you have an Android phone, you can get back at them for
always parking in your spot and slamming the door when they get home at 2 a.m.—by
stealing...er, borrowing, their connection.
A group of researchers came up with a H@ck to get around hardware limitations and
add monitor mode to Android devices to allow them to Cr@ck Wi-Fi passwords.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
with-your-android-phone-and-get-free-internet.w654.jpg
Monitor mode lets you see all the traffic going through a network and how many
devices are connected to it, but it can also be used for more nefarious purposes. If
you're patient enough, you can Cr@ck the WEP key on a network by capturing data
packets in monitor mode.
To add monitor mode to an Android device, the researchers reverse engineered the
Broadcom radio chip. They modified the firmware on the chipsets in the Nexus One
and Galaxy S II, which are the same ones used in the majority of mobile devices. The
code is posted on Google Code, but you'll need to know which chipset you have and
download the right one for your phone.
Once you've downloaded the code, it's as simple as extracting the .zip file, then
running the setup and configuration files. They've included instructions for each
chipset and a few different devices on their blog, so head over there to find the
specifics for yours.
After it's up and running, check out one of our tutorials to learn how to use it to
Cr@ck the key. So, next time your neighbor wants to borrow your power drill, rest
assured that you're "borrowing" something much more valuable from them!
smart, they probably have it password protected (otherwise you wouldn't be reading
this, would you?). But if you have an Android phone, you can get back at them for
always parking in your spot and slamming the door when they get home at 2 a.m.—by
stealing...er, borrowing, their connection.
A group of researchers came up with a H@ck to get around hardware limitations and
add monitor mode to Android devices to allow them to Cr@ck Wi-Fi passwords.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
with-your-android-phone-and-get-free-internet.w654.jpg
Monitor mode lets you see all the traffic going through a network and how many
devices are connected to it, but it can also be used for more nefarious purposes. If
you're patient enough, you can Cr@ck the WEP key on a network by capturing data
packets in monitor mode.
To add monitor mode to an Android device, the researchers reverse engineered the
Broadcom radio chip. They modified the firmware on the chipsets in the Nexus One
and Galaxy S II, which are the same ones used in the majority of mobile devices. The
code is posted on Google Code, but you'll need to know which chipset you have and
download the right one for your phone.
Once you've downloaded the code, it's as simple as extracting the .zip file, then
running the setup and configuration files. They've included instructions for each
chipset and a few different devices on their blog, so head over there to find the
specifics for yours.
After it's up and running, check out one of our tutorials to learn how to use it to
Cr@ck the key. So, next time your neighbor wants to borrow your power drill, rest
assured that you're "borrowing" something much more valuable from them!
