25.2 Monitor Mode and the Aircrack-ng Suite

By Ravindra Bagale Last updated: 27 September 2026

In short: The Aircrack-ng suite is the standard toolkit: airmon-ng (monitor mode), airodump-ng (capture), aireplay-ng (inject/deauth), aircrack-ng (crack the captured handshake).

Wi-Fi capture sathi tumcha wireless card monitor mode madhe pahije – tyane javalche sagle Wi-Fi packets aikta yetat (normal "managed" mode madhe fakt tumchya network che). Yasathi monitor mode support karnara adapter lagto (bahutek laptop che internal card lab sathi purese nastat).

sudo airmon-ng                       # list wireless interfaces
sudo airmon-ng check kill            # stop processes that interfere
sudo airmon-ng start wlan0           # put wlan0 into monitor mode (becomes wlan0mon)
sudo airodump-ng wlan0mon            # scan: list nearby networks (BSSID, channel, encryption)
sudo airmon-ng stop wlan0mon         # return to normal mode when done

The Aircrack-ng suite is the standard toolkit: airmon-ng (monitor mode), airodump-ng (capture), aireplay-ng (inject/deauth), aircrack-ng (crack the captured handshake).

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Students struggle because monitor mode won't work – the reason is that a laptop's internal card or a VM's virtual adapter does not support monitor mode. For the lab you need an external USB Wi-Fi adapter (one that supports monitor mode and injection). Check this first, then start.

Lab

(Needs a monitor-mode adapter.) Put your adapter in monitor mode and run airodump-ng for one minute. In your notes, list only your own network's BSSID, channel and encryption type. Do not record or target any other network.