Hacking Wireless Networks require wireless cards that support the monitor mode and packet Injection. Here is a list of Best WiFi Adapters for Kali Linux that are 100% compatible with the latest Kali Linux, that can go into monitor mode, inject packets and perform everything that is needed for a full-fledged WiFi Penetration Testing. Alpha adapters are best for WIFI pen testing in their price range and are compatible with Kali Linux.
Why We Need a USB WiFi Adapter For Kali Linux?
Every Laptop has a WIFI card in build. But why do we need an external WIFI adapter then? There are two issues with that, though.
- The first issue is that we cannot access built-in wireless adapters via Kali if installed as a virtual machine.
- The second and most serious issue is that these built-in wireless adapters are not suitable for hacking.
Even if we install Kali Linux as our primary machine, then we will get access to our built-in wireless card, but we will not be able to use it for hacking because it does not support monitor mode or packet injection. So if we need to use it for WiFi auditing and other interesting Kali Linux stuff like aircrack-ng and other tools, we will need to acquire a Kali Linux USB WiFi adapter.
Now while shopping for the best wireless adapter, you must be looking for the range of the wireless adapter and the frequency band it supports. Either it supports the 5 GHz band or not.
Best WIFI Adapters for WIFI hacking
Alfa AWUS036NH - Good Old Friend - $50
Alfa AWUS036NHA - Best in its Price Range -$50
Alfa AC1200 - Supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, bands - $65
Alfa AC1900 - Long range dual Band- $65
TP-Link WN722N - Budget device for Beginners -$20
Wifi Nation AC600 - Best in Budget - $35
Wifi Nation WN-H3 - Best in Budget - $55
Panda PAU09 N600 - Budget dual band for the Beginners - $55
Panda PAU 06 - Beginner Chip, Single Band -$50
In addition to the wireless hacking adapters, there are also many hardware devices that purpose built to hack wireless networks.
The goal of these devices is to find loopholes that compromise the security of a network so that the network administrator can fix these loopholes to make the WiFi network more secure.
1. WiFi Pineapple
The best part of this tool is that you don’t have to install any software to use it. Everything can be done through an intuitive web interface with just a few clicks.
There is also a very active community surrounding it with constant updates making it the most well-known and classic tool when it comes to pentesting WiFi networks.
2. DSTIKE WiFi Duck V2 USB Keyboard
This open source project aims to provide a user-friendly tool to learn about keystroke injection attacks. A microcontroller acts as a USB keyboard that is programmable over WiFi.
A keyboard is trusted by most operating systems by default, which enables for a variety of attacks. Humans might not type very fast, but an automated device like this can. It can open a terminal and mess with your computer in a matter of a milliseconds! 4MB Flash ESP-WROOM-02
De-authentication is necessary for hacking WiFi networks. Once you de-authenticate a client from a wireless network, the client is forced to re-authenticate with the network. During re-authentication, an attacker can steal the WPA handshake and use it to brute-force the password for the network. Also, de-authentication is useful in “Evil Twin” attacks, where the attacker disconnects the client from the wireless network and force the client to authenticate to a “Rouge Access Point”.
Deauther Wristwatch uses the same board but ships with a 3D printed case and a wristband so you can wear it as a smartwatch. Not only it’s a cool WiFi hacking device, but it is also very handy as compared to the Deauther board. The functionality of this wristwatch is same as the ESP8266 board and this will also work only with 2.4GHz frequency. The latest version of the device (v3) has OLED Display with an 800mAh lithium battery that gives up to 8-10 hrs working time.