Capturing data (cough… passwords… cough) on unsecured wireless isn’t hard… (so don’t use them or SSL it baby!)

NirBlog - How to capture data and passwords of unsecured wireless networks with SniffPass and SmartSniff

“A few months ago, I released a new version of both SmartSniff and SniffPass with support for using them with Microsoft Network Monitor 3.x

In the release details, I also specified that 'Wifi Monitor Mode' button was added for using 'Monitor Mode' under Windows Vista/7/2008, but without giving extensive explanation about how to use this feature. So in this blog post, I'll add more details about this 'Wifi Monitor Mode' and how to use it on SmartSniff and SniffPass.

When a wireless network card enters into a 'Monitor Mode', it listens to specific channel that you choose and captures all the packets that are sent by wireless networks on your area in the specific channel that you selected.  If the wireless network that sent the packet is unsecured,   SmartSniff and SniffPass will be able to show you the packets data.

Before I start to explain you how to use this mode, here's the system requirements for using  'Monitor Mode':

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The recent heightened awareness of how unsecure wireless networks are (funny that given the “unsecure” keyword…) with the release of the FireFox FireSheep extension is a good thing, IMHO. Well, let me say I feel the “awareness” is good… Knowledge is power. How many of you were not using the SSL versions of Twitter/Facebook/Gmail/Hotmail/etc/etc before this? And now?

Here’s another, lower level, net-guy/gal, tool that gives you a view into this world…

Note: Please use this information for Good… With great power, … etc, etc