Handshake: In the context of wireless networks (like Wi-Fi), a handshake refers to the process of authentication between a client (device) and an access point (AP). Capturing this handshake allows one to attempt to crack the network's password offline. Tools like Aircrack-ng are commonly used for this purpose.
Wordlist: A wordlist, or dictionary, is a list of words, phrases, and common passwords used to guess a password. Password cracking software uses these lists to try each word as a potential password.
This is the obvious one. The list is static. No matter how many times you run it, if SuperSecretWiFi2025 is not in the file, it will never crack.
Run:
aircrack-ng yourcapture.cap
Look for the line: Number of handshakes: 1 (WPA).
During an authorized penetration test, a four-way handshake was successfully captured from a target WPA2-protected network. The handshake file (captured in .cap or .pcap format) was then processed through aircrack-ng and hashcat using the probable.txt wordlist — a widely used password dictionary containing millions of common passwords, leaked credentials, and word variations.
Despite the wordlist’s comprehensiveness, both tools returned the same result:
Failed to crack handshake
Further investigation confirmed that the wordlist probable.txt did not contain the actual network password.
Example:
cewl https://targetcompany.com -m 8 -w custom.txt
aircrack-ng capture.cap -w custom.txt
Now that we know the password isn't in the default list, it's time to bring out the big guns. Here is the escalation path for cracking difficult handshakes.
Handshake: In the context of wireless networks (like Wi-Fi), a handshake refers to the process of authentication between a client (device) and an access point (AP). Capturing this handshake allows one to attempt to crack the network's password offline. Tools like Aircrack-ng are commonly used for this purpose.
Wordlist: A wordlist, or dictionary, is a list of words, phrases, and common passwords used to guess a password. Password cracking software uses these lists to try each word as a potential password.
This is the obvious one. The list is static. No matter how many times you run it, if SuperSecretWiFi2025 is not in the file, it will never crack. Handshake : In the context of wireless networks
Run:
aircrack-ng yourcapture.cap
Look for the line: Number of handshakes: 1 (WPA). Look for the line: Number of handshakes: 1 (WPA)
During an authorized penetration test, a four-way handshake was successfully captured from a target WPA2-protected network. The handshake file (captured in .cap or .pcap format) was then processed through aircrack-ng and hashcat using the probable.txt wordlist — a widely used password dictionary containing millions of common passwords, leaked credentials, and word variations.
Despite the wordlist’s comprehensiveness, both tools returned the same result: Further investigation confirmed that the wordlist probable
Failed to crack handshake
Further investigation confirmed that the wordlist probable.txt did not contain the actual network password.
Example:
cewl https://targetcompany.com -m 8 -w custom.txt
aircrack-ng capture.cap -w custom.txt
Now that we know the password isn't in the default list, it's time to bring out the big guns. Here is the escalation path for cracking difficult handshakes.