NAME
airodump-ng - a wireless packet capture tool for aircrack-ng
SYNOPSIS
airodump-ng [options] <interface name>
DESCRIPTION
airodump-ng is used for packet capturing of raw 802.11 frames for the
intent of using them with aircrack-ng. If you have a GPS receiver
connected to the computer, airodump-ng is capable of logging the
coordinates of the found access points. Additionally, airodump-ng
writes out a text file containing the details of all access points and
clients seen.
OPTIONS
-H, --help
Shows the help screen.
-i, --ivs
It only saves IVs (only useful for cracking). If this option is
specified, you have to give a dump prefix (--write option)
-g, --gpsd
Indicate that airodump-ng should try to use GPSd to get
coordinates.
-w <prefix>, --write <prefix>
Is the dump file prefix to use. If this option is not given, it
will only show data on the screen. Beside this file a CSV file
with the same filename as the capture will be created.
-e, --beacons
It will record all beacons into the cap file. By default it only
records one beacon for each network.
-u <secs>, --update <secs>
Delay <secs> seconds delay between display updates (default: 1
second). Useful for slow CPU.
--showack
Prints ACK/CTS/RTS statistics. Helps in debugging and general
injection optimization. It is indication if you inject, inject
too fast, reach the AP, the frames are valid encrypted frames.
Allows to detect "hidden" stations, which are too far away to
capture high bitrate frames, as ACK frames are sent at 1Mbps.
-h Hides known stations for --showack.
--berlin <secs>
Time before removing the AP/client from the screen when no more
packets are received (Default: 120 seconds). See airodump-ng
source for the history behind this option ;).
-c <channel>[,<channel>[,...]], --channel <channel>[,<channel>[,...]]
Indicate the channel(s) to listen to. By default airodump-ng hop
on all 2.4GHz channels.
-b <abg>, --band <abg>
Indicate the band on which airodump-ng should hop. It can be a
combination of ’a’, ’b’ and ’g’ letters (’b’ and ’g’ uses 2.4GHz
and ’a’ uses 5GHz). Incompatible with --channel option.
-s <method>, --cswitch <method>
Defines the way airodump-ng sets the channels when using more
than one card. Valid values: 0, 1 or 2.
-r <file>
Reads packet from a file.
-x <msecs>
Active Scanning Simulation (send probe requests and parse the
probe responses).
--output-format <formats>
Define the formats to use (separated by a comma). Possible
values are: pcap, ivs, csv, gps, kismet, netxml. The default
values are: pcap, csv, kismet, kismet-newcore. ´pcap´ is for
recording a capture in pcap format, ’ivs’ is for ivs format (it
is a shortcut for --ivs). ’csv’ will create an airodump-ng CSV
file, ’kismet’ will create a kismet csv file and ’kismet-
newcore’ will create the kismet netxml file. ’gps’ is a shortcut
for --gps.
Theses values can be combined with the exception of ivs and
pcap.
Filter options:
-t <OPN|WEP|WPA|WPA1|WPA2>, --encrypt <OPN|WEP|WPA|WPA1|WPA2>
It will only show networks matching the given encryption. May be
specified more than once: ’-t OPN -t WPA2’
-d <bssid>, --bssid <bssid>
It will only show networks, matching the given bssid.
-m <mask>, --netmask <mask>
It will only show networks, matching the given bssid ^ netmask
combination. Need --bssid (or -d) to be specified.
-a It will only show associated clients.
INTERACTION
airodump-ng can receive and interpret key strokes while running. The
following list describes the currently assigned keys and supposed
actions:
a Select active areas by cycling through these display options:
AP+STA; AP+STA+ACK; AP only; STA only
d Reset sorting to defaults (Power)
i Invert sorting algorithm
m Mark the selected AP or cycle through different colors if the
selected AP is already marked
r (De-)Activate realtime sorting - applies sorting algorithm
everytime the display will be redrawn
s Change column to sort by, which currently includes: First seen;
BSSID; PWR level; Beacons; Data packets; Packet rate; Channel;
Max. data rate; Encryption; Strongest Ciphersuite; Strongest
Authentication; ESSID
SPACE Pause display redrawing/ Resume redrawing
TAB Enable/Disable scrolling through AP list
UP Select the AP prior to the currently marked AP in the displayed
list if available
DOWN Select the AP after the currently marked AP if available
If an AP is selected or marked, all the connected stations will also be
selected or marked with the same color as the corresponding Access
Point.
EXAMPLES
airodump-ng --band bg ath0
Here is an example screenshot:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CH 9 ][ Elapsed: 1 min ][ 2007-04-26 17:41 ][ BAT: 2 hours 10 mins ][
WPA handshake: 00:14:6C:7E:40:80
BSSID PWR RXQ Beacons #Data, #/s CH MB ENC CIPHER
AUTH ESSID
00:09:5B:1C:AA:1D 11 16 10 0 0 11 54. OPN
<length: 7>
00:14:6C:7A:41:81 34 100 57 14 1 9 11 WEP WEP
bigbear
00:14:6C:7E:40:80 32 100 752 73 2 9 54 WPA TKIP
PSK teddy
BSSID STATION PWR Rate Lost Packets
Probes
00:14:6C:7A:41:81 00:0F:B5:32:31:31 51 11-11 2 14
bigbear
(not associated) 00:14:A4:3F:8D:13 19 11-11 0 4 mossy
00:14:6C:7A:41:81 00:0C:41:52:D1:D1 -1 11-2 0 5
bigbear
00:14:6C:7E:40:80 00:0F:B5:FD:FB:C2 35 36-24 0 99 teddy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BSSID MAC address of the access point. In the Client section, a BSSID
of "(not associated)" means that the client is not associated
with any AP. In this unassociated state, it is searching for an
AP to connect with.
PWR Signal level reported by the card. Its signification depends on
the driver, but as the signal gets higher you get closer to the
AP or the station. If the BSSID PWR is -1, then the driver
doesn’t support signal level reporting. If the PWR is -1 for a
limited number of stations then this is for a packet which came
from the AP to the client but the client transmissions are out
of range for your card. Meaning you are hearing only 1/2 of the
communication. If all clients have PWR as -1 then the driver
doesn’t support signal level reporting.
RXQ Only shown when on a fixed channel. Receive Quality as measured
by the percentage of packets (management and data frames)
successfully received over the last 10 seconds. It’s measured
over all management and data frames. That’s the clue, this
allows you to read more things out of this value. Lets say you
got 100 percent RXQ and all 10 (or whatever the rate) beacons
per second coming in. Now all of a sudden the RXQ drops below
90, but you still capture all sent beacons. Thus you know that
the AP is sending frames to a client but you can’t hear the
client nor the AP sending to the client (need to get closer).
Another thing would be, that you got a 11MB card to monitor and
capture frames (say a prism2.5) and you have a very good
position to the AP. The AP is set to 54MBit and then again the
RXQ drops, so you know that there is at least one 54MBit client
connected to the AP.
Beacons
Number of beacons sent by the AP. Each access point sends about
ten beacons per second at the lowest rate (1M), so they can
usually be picked up from very far.
#Data Number of captured data packets (if WEP, unique IV count),
including data broadcast packets.
#/s Number of data packets per second measure over the last 10
seconds.
CH Channel number (taken from beacon packets). Note: sometimes
packets from other channels are captured even if airodump-ng is
not hopping, because of radio interference.
MB Maximum speed supported by the AP. If MB = 11, it’s 802.11b, if
MB = 22 it’s 802.11b+ and higher rates are 802.11g. The dot
(after 54 above) indicates short preamble is supported. ’e’
indicates that the network has QoS (802.11e) enabled.
ENC Encryption algorithm in use. OPN = no encryption,"WEP?" = WEP or
higher (not enough data to choose between WEP and WPA/WPA2), WEP
(without the question mark) indicates static or dynamic WEP, and
WPA or WPA2 if TKIP or CCMP or MGT is present.
CIPHER The cipher detected. One of CCMP, WRAP, TKIP, WEP, WEP40, or
WEP104. Not mandatory, but TKIP is typically used with WPA and
CCMP is typically used with WPA2. WEP40 is displayed when the
key index is greater then 0. The standard states that the index
can be 0-3 for 40bit and should be 0 for 104 bit.
AUTH The authentication protocol used. One of MGT (WPA/WPA2 using a
separate authentication server), SKA (shared key for WEP), PSK
(pre-shared key for WPA/WPA2), or OPN (open for WEP).
ESSID The so-called "SSID", which can be empty if SSID hiding is
activated. In this case, airodump-ng will try to recover the
SSID from probe responses and association requests.
STATION
MAC address of each associated station or stations searching for
an AP to connect with. Clients not currently associated with an
AP have a BSSID of "(not associated)".
Rate This is only displayed when using a single channel. The first
number is the last data rate from the AP (BSSID) to the Client
(STATION). The second number is the last data rate from Client
(STATION) to the AP (BSSID).
Lost It means lost packets coming from the client. To determine the
number of packets lost, there is a sequence field on every non-
control frame, so you can subtract the second last sequence
number from the last sequence number and you know how many
packets you have lost.
Packets
The number of data packets sent by the client.
Probes The ESSIDs probed by the client. These are the networks the
client is trying to connect to if it is not currently connected.
The first part is the detected access points. The second part is a list
of detected wireless clients, stations. By relying on the signal power,
one can even physically pinpoint the location of a given station.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Adam Cecile <gandalf@le-vert.net> for
the Debian system (but may be used by others). Permission is granted
to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
GNU General Public License, Version 2 or any later version published by
the Free Software Foundation On Debian systems, the complete text of
the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-
licenses/GPL.
SEE ALSO
airbase-ng(1)
aircrack-ng(1)
airdecap-ng(1)
airdecloak-ng(1)
airdriver-ng(1)
aireplay-ng(1)
airmon-ng(1)
airolib-ng(1)
airserv-ng(1)
airtun-ng(1)
buddy-ng(1)
easside-ng(1)
ivstools(1)
kstats(1)
makeivs-ng(1)
packetforge-ng(1)
tkiptun-ng(1)
wesside-ng(1)