How to hack your own Wi-Fi network
Free (or almost free) Wi-Fi penetration testing tools can help you spot potential Wi-Fi security vulnerabilities and figure out ways to protect against them.
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One way to bolster your understanding of Wi-Fi security is to do some hacking yourself. That doesn’t mean you should infiltrate a company’s network or snoop on a neighbor’s setup. Rather, ethical hacking and legitimate Wi-Fi penetration testing – done in cooperation with the network owner – can help you learn more about the strengths and limitations of wireless security. Understanding potential Wi-Fi vulnerabilities can help you to better protect the networks you manage and ensure safer connections when you access other wireless networks.
Start with a Wi-Fi stumbler
General purpose Wi-Fi stumblers are the simplest tools to add to your pen testing kit. Though typically passive tools, they serve an important purpose. They allow you to see nearby access points (AP) and their details, such as signal level, security/encryption type, and media access control (MAC) address.
How to Hack Wi-Fi Passwords
Chances are you have a Wi-Fi network at home, or live close to one (or more) that tantalizingly pops up in a list whenever you boot up the laptop.
The problem is, if there's a lock next to the network name (AKA the SSID, or service set identifier), that indicates security is activated. Without the password or passphrase, you're not going to get access to that network, or the sweet, sweet internet that goes with it.
Perhaps you forgot the password on your own network, or don't have neighbors willing to share the Wi-Fi goodness. You could just go to a café, buy a latte, and use the "free" Wi-Fi there. Download an app for your phone likeWiFi-Map (available for iOS and Android), and you'll have a list of over 2 million hotspots with free Wi-Fi for the taking (including some passwords for locked Wi-Fi connections, if they're shared by any of the app's 7 million users).
Windows Commands to Get the Key:
This trick works to recover a Wi-Fi network password (aka network security key) only if you've previously attached to the Wi-Fi in question using that very password. In other words, it only works if you've forgotten a previously used password.
It works because Windows 8 and 10 create a profile of every Wi-Fi network to which you attach. If you tell Windows to forget the network, then it also forgets the password, so this won't work. But most people never explicitly do that.
It requires that you go into a Windows Command Prompt with administrative privileges. To do so, use Cortana to search for "cmd" and the menu will show Command Prompt; right-click that entry and select "Run as administrator." That'll open the black box full of white text with the prompt inside—it's the line with a > at the end, probably something like C:\WINDOWS\system32\>. A blinking cursor will indicate where you type. Start with this:
netsh wlan show profile
The results will bring up a section called User Profiles—those are all the Wi-Fi networks (aka WLANs, or wireless local area networks) you've accessed and saved. Pick the one you want to get the password for, highlight it, and copy it. At the prompt below, type the following, but replace the Xs with the network name you copied; you only need the quotation marks if the network name has spaces in it.
netsh wlan show profile name="XXXXXXXX" key=clear
In the new data that comes up, look under Security Settings for the line "Key Content." The word displayed is the Wi-Fi password/key you are missing.
On macOS, open up the Spotlight search (Cmd+Space) and type terminal to get the Mac equivalent of a command prompt. Type the following, replacing the Xs with the network name.
security find-generic-password -wa XXXXXReset the Router✅
Before you do a full router reset just to get on the wireless,
The results will bring up a section called User Profiles—those are all the Wi-Fi networks (aka WLANs, or wireless local area networks) you've accessed and saved. Pick the one you want to get the password for, highlight it, and copy it. At the prompt below, type the following, but replace the Xs with the network name you copied; you only need the quotation marks if the network name has spaces in it.
netsh wlan show profile name="XXXXXXXX" key=clear
In the new data that comes up, look under Security Settings for the line "Key Content." The word displayed is the Wi-Fi password/key you are missing.
On macOS, open up the Spotlight search (Cmd+Space) and type terminal to get the Mac equivalent of a command prompt. Type the following, replacing the Xs with the network name.
security find-generic-password -wa XXXXXReset the Router
Before you do a full router reset just to get on the wireless,
try to log into the router first. From there, you can easily reset your Wi-Fi password/key if you've forgotten it.
That's not possible if you don't know the password for the router, either. (They're not the same thing unless you set it up that way). Resetting the router only works if you have access. That access could be over Wi-Fi (which we've just established you don't have) or physically utilizing an Ethernet cable.
Or that access can simply be that you are in the same room as the router. Almost every router in existence has a recessed reset button. Push it with a pen or unfolded paperclip, hold it for about 10 seconds, and the router will reset to the factory settings.
