In this chapter, we learned about passive versus active sniffing. We started by exploring wireless LANs in monitor mode, which allowed us to capture data without revealing our presence. We used Airodump-ng to organize the wireless environment and inform more precise sniffing with Wireshark. After exploring the basics with Wireshark, we moved on to advanced statistical analysis of both passive and active sniffing methods. For the active sniffing phase, we connected to a network (thus revealing our presence) and captured data visible to our card. We applied advanced display filters to hone in on interesting packets. within even very large network dumps. We then moved on to advanced Ettercap sniffing techniques, focusing on bridged sniffing with two interfaces. To demonstrate the power of this attack, we configured a malicious access point and set up our Kali box to function as a full-fledged traffic interceptor and IDS, including using Ettercap filters to capture and drop select data from the network. We then introduced BetterCAP, a sophisticated alternative to Ettercap, to demonstrate an ICMP redirection attack.

In the next chapter, we will discuss Windows password fundamentals, and we will demonstrate practical attacks to capture Windows credentials off the wire, and a host to feed into a password cracker. We will then discuss password cracking methods.