Hidden wifi access point

Connect to a hidden wireless network

It is possible to set up a wireless network so that it is “hidden.” Hidden networks won’t show up in the list of wireless networks displayed in the Network settings. To connect to a hidden wireless network:

1. Open the system menu from the right side of the top bar.
2. Select Wi-Fi Not Connected . The Wi-Fi section of the menu will expand.
3. Click Wi-Fi Settings .
4. Press the menu button in the top-right corner of the window and select Connect to Hidden Network… .
5. In the window that appears, select a previously-connected hidden network using the Connection drop-down list, or New for a new one.
6. For a new connection, type the network name and choose the type of wireless security from the Wi-Fi security drop-down list.
7. Enter the password or other security details.
8. Click Connect .

You may have to check the settings of the wireless access point or router to see what the network name is. If you don’t have the network name (SSID), you can use the BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier, the access point’s MAC address), which looks something like 02:00:01:02:03:04 and can usually be found on the underside of the access point.

You should also check the security settings for the wireless access point. Look for terms like WEP and WPA.

You may think that hiding your wireless network will improve security by preventing people who don’t know about it from connecting. In practice, this is not the case; the network is slightly harder to find but it is still detectable.

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How to find the name of the wifi hidden network

What is hidden WiFi networks? wifi hidden network is configure to be hidden so they do not broadcast their name (ESSID). This is considered, in their opinion, additional protection (along with the password).

Simply put, the wifi hidden network is a network that is not visible in the list of available networks. To connect to it, you must enter its name manually.

In fact, this method of protection is untenable, if only because at certain moments the name of the wireless network (ESSID) is still broadcast in an open form.

There is a whole set of recommendations on how to protect your wireless router. But this type of protection (hiding the name of WiFi), as well as filtering by MAC address , are not recommended for use, because they cause certain difficulties to legitimate users and do not provide any protection.
This material shows the failure of protection by hiding the network.

How to find WiFi hidden networks

Let’s start with the fact that hidden networks are not so hidden. They are very easy to see with Airodump-ng . To do this we need Monitor Mode WiFi adapter , we translate our wireless card into monitor mode :

ifconfig wlan0 down && iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor && ifconfig wlan0 up

Pay attention to the line

20: 02: AF: 32: D2: 61 -40 108 3 0 6 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK

This is the “hidden” WiFi network. All data, except for ESSID, is available on a par with other access points. And we already know something about the ESSID: . This means that the length of the name is 3 characters.

Getting the name of WiFi hidden network using Airodump-ng

The network name (ESSID) is transmitted in the broadcast in clear text and can be intercepted during client connection. You can wait for the client to connect in a natural way, or you can speed up the process if you “knock out” ( deauthenticate ) from the access point. After that, it will immediately begin to reconnect, the network name will appear in the broadcast in clear text, and we, in turn, will intercept it.
We look at the available access point:

Network with a hidden name:

20:25:64:16:58:8C -42 1856 0 0 1 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK

the SSSID is 20: 25: 64: 16: 58: 8C, the length of the AP name is 11 characters, works on channel 1. Therefore, I run airodump-ng on the first channel:

airodump-ng wlan0 --channel 1

If you remember, when capturing the handshake, I also indicated the -w option followed by the file name prefix. This can be done now – since the seizure of a handshake does not prevent the identification of the name of the hidden AP. In this case, you will kill two birds with one stone at once.

You can do nothing – just wait for someone to connect or reconnect naturally. If you are in a hurry, you can force the process using de-authentication attacks.

To do this, we open a new terminal window and type the command there:

aireplay-ng -0 3 -a 20:25:64:16:58:8C wlan0

Here, -0 means deauthentication, 3 means the number of sent packets, -a 20: 25: 64: 16: 58: 8C is the BSSID of the target AP, and wlan0 is the network interface in monitor mode.
The result was obtained almost instantly:

20:25:64:16:58:8C -34 100 1270 601 0 1 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK SecondaryAP

Those. The name of the “hidden” network is SecondaryAP .

Advantages of using Airodump-ng:

• Much faster than brute force with mdk3 (using de-authentication attack )
• If you do not use deauthentication attack, then you remain invisible for wireless monitoring systems.

• If there are no clients, then this program is powerless to reveal the hidden WiFi network
• If you use the attack deauthentication, then you are unmasking yourself.
• If you do not use this attack, the disclosure time of the network name is greatly increased.

Getting the name of hidden WiFi network using mdk3

• Works in situations where Airodump-ng is powerless.
• find the name of the hidden WiFi without clients .

• The selection can be delayed for a long time, especially for long names of WiFi access points.
• You always unmask yourself, your activity for wireless monitors looks extremely suspicious.

Remember our first hidden AP

20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -40 108 3 0 6 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK

Unfortunately, this AP has no clients, so we cannot use the magic of Airodump-ng . Instead, we will use the mdk3 brute force.
My command has the form:

mdk3 wlan0 p -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -f /root/essid.txt

Here mdk3 is the name of the tool we are using, wlan0 is the name of the wireless network interface, p means basic sounding and ESSID brute-force mode, -t 20: 02: AF: 32: D2: 61 is the BSSID of the TD we are interested in, -f / root / essid .txt points to a file that contains a list of names for the brute-force ESSID (WiFi network name). The result of the program:
The result of the program:

Those. The network name is matched, it turned out to be web . Above is a dictionary attack. But the names of wireless networks can be mined using the usual brute force. My command takes the form:

mdk3 wlan0 p -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -с 6 -b l

Most of the options are already familiar to us, except for two new ones: -c 6 means the sixth channel, -bl means the character set, and l means lower case.
Character sets:

• all printed ( a )
• lower case ( l )
• upper case ( u )
• digits ( n )
• lower and upper case ( c )
• lower and upper case plus numbers ( m )

[email protected]:~# mdk3 wlan0 p -t 20:02:AF:32:D2:61 -с 6 -b l SSID Bruteforce Mode activated! Waiting for beacon frame from target. Sniffer thread started SSID is hidden. SSID Length is: 3. Trying SSID: Packets sent: 1 - Speed: 1 packets/sec Got response from 0C:54:A5:C0:24:D6, SSID: "DANIELLE2015" Last try was: aaa Trying SSID: mla Trying SSID: rab Packets sent: 695 - Speed: 395 packets/sec Got response from 20:02:AF:32:D2:61, SSID: "web" Last try was: xeb

As you can see, the program just perfectly (and quickly!) Worked. Result received: Got response from 20: 02: AF: 32: D2: 61, SSID: “web” .

To summarize WiFi protection by hiding the name of the network (along with filtering by MAC address – see the article “ How to bypass filtering by MAC address ”) are unfit security tools. Nobody forbids their use – they do not weaken the protection. But they do not increase it. In this case, you have to put up with the inconveniences that they cause to legitimate users. If we are talking about filtering by MAC address, then if you add a new client, someone should receive administrative rights for the router and change its configuration. This may not always be acceptable.

If you know other programs or methods for obtaining the ESSID – the name of a hidden WiFi network, then you can share them in the comments.

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Is a Hidden WiFi Network Secure? (Hidden SSID)

When performing a WiFi network security audit, it is important to identify hidden network names, also known as ESSID under the 802.11 standard. Before connecting, or even attempting to connect to a wireless network, its name must be known. Furthermore, in case of WPA/WPA2 security type networks, an ESSID is required to verify the Pre-Shared Key (PSK), the encryption key. Usually, WiFi network access points send their network name as one of the Information Elements that are included in some of the management type frames, more precisely, the beacons (type=0x00, subtype=0x05) with the information element which identifier is 0. This parameter structure is shown as follows: For some years, the main manufacturers of WiFi devices operating on AP mode have been giving the option to configure the devices to hide their network names. This has been implemented as a security feature to prevent unwanted connections, since the network name is one of the required parameters to establish connection, although it has an important design flaw.

How to Obtain Hidden WiFi Network Name (ESSID) Length

Even when a network name is not provided, most devices operating on AP mode send the Information Element that includes the network name as a field containing a hexadecimal 0x00 value, as well as its length. This piece of information is a first approximation to obtaining the hidden WiFi network name. This is also frequent in corporate environments, where network names are usually self-explanatory or follow a certain deducible pattern, therefore it is possible to predict all network names from one of them by knowing their length.

How to Obtain a Hidden WiFi Network Name (ESSID)

A client device trying to connect to a WiFi network sends a Probe Request type frame to the AP and requests certain information from the AP while sending client device information to the AP. This information is sent to the client device through another frame known as Probe Response (type=0x00, subtype=0x05). This information exchange initiates the association process of the station with the AP. The network name is part of the information sent to the network and since these types of frames are usually not encrypted or protected, it is possible to obtain the network name by monitoring WiFi traffic with a sniffer until a registered client connects to the network, or forcing an already connected client to reconnect to the network.

Hidden WiFi Network Attacks

After some research we have found that there is an Information Element message that can be sent through the Probe Request type frames, used for a Station to request another IE to a different Station. It is then possible to request an AP that is not transmitting the network name to kindly send us that parameter in a Probe Response packet. Since this is an optional Information Element which is hardly ever used (although it is defined in the 802.11-2007 standard), most AP firmwares have not implemented or have completely ignored its behavior, therefore the use of this “functionality” is highly limited. We have tested several models and we have concluded that this flaw is found in older Android versions when using an external software to create an AP, as well as in some older D-Link models.

Is a Hidden WiFi Network Secure?

Not at all. Hiding a SSID only offers a layer of “security through obscurity”, and if the router has a vulnerable firmware or there is at least one client connected to the network, then the WiFi network name can be obtained as it’s expose to WiFi packet capture software. With Acrylic Wi-Fi Home or with Acrylic Wi-FI Professional, the hidden networks appear in red once they are identified through the WiFi network traffic automatic analysis.

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