Unauthorised Access: Physical Penetration Testing For IT Security Teams

8.4. Wireless Equipment

I have dedicated a whole chapter to wireless network hacking. Here I'm just going to make recommendations about equipment.

8.4.1. The Basics of 802.11x Wireless Networking

There are three standards in 802.11x wireless networking cards: a,b,g. The a standard is virtually dead. It's hardly used anywhere except in people's homes. The b standard is slow and out of date so g is what you will most likely end up testing. Despite this, it's important to have cards representing all three standards in your kit. Most of the wireless work you'll be doing will be in Linux, consequently it's important to have cards that will work with this O/S. Linux is unlike Windows in that drivers are not vendor- but chipset-specfic. This can be confusing because many cards have the same chipset but are rebadged by different vendors. Conversely, cards that may be of similar specification released by the same vendor may have completely different chipsets. When choosing cards two things are important: that the chipset is compatible and that it supports packet injection. Packet injection (and why this is important) is discussed in Chapter 5 – it's an important feature in wireless hacking but from a simple hardware perspective, we've done the hard work for you. Everything listed here is suitable for wireless hacking. Check the specs when ordering that the product code is correct as chipsets vary greatly even within manufacturers and they tend give their products the same basic name: ...