Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system.
Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic.
Kismet identifies networks by passively collecting packets and detecting standard named networks, detecting (and given time, decloaking) hidden networks, and inferring the presence of non-beaconing networks via data traffic.
Key Features
- Ethereal/Tcpdump compatible data logging.
- Airsnort compatible weak-iv packet logging.
- Network IP range detection.
- Built-in channel hopping and multicard split channel hopping.
- Hidden network SSID decloaking.
- Graphical mapping of networks.
- Client/Server architecture allows multiple clients to view a single Kismet server simultaneously.
- Manufacturer and model identification of access points and clients.
- Detection of known default access point configurations.
- Runtime decoding of WEP packets for known networks.
- Named pipe output for integration with other tools, such as a layer3 IDS like Snort.
- Multiplexing of multiple simultaneous capture sources on a single Kismet instance.
- Distributed remote drone sniffing.
- XML output.
- Over 20 supported card types.
Website: www.kismetwireless.net
Support: Documentation
Developer: Mike Kershaw
License: GNU General Public License
Kismet is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Network Intrusion Detection Systems | |
|---|---|
| Snort | Intrusion detection/prevention with real-time traffic analysis/packet logging |
| Suricata | High performance Network IDS, IPS and Network Security Monitoring engine |
| Zeek | (formerly Bro) Powerful network analysis framework |
| Maltrail | Lightweight malicious traffic detection system |
| Kismet | Wireless intrusion detection, wireless network and device detector, and more |
| Slips | Intrusion detection and prevention system |
| Sagan | Multi-threads, high performance log analysis engine |
| psad | Intrusion detection and log analysis with iptables |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Network Analyzers | |
|---|---|
| Wireshark | Network protocol analyzer with a rich and powerful feature set |
| Sniffnet | Visualise live network traffic with a friendly interface |
| Kismet | Wireless network and device detector, sniffer, wardriving tool |
| Ettercap | Comprehensive suite for man in the middle attacks |
| IPTraf-ng | Feature-laden network statistic monitoring tool |
| Zeek | Network security monitoring with deep traffic insight |
| netsniff-ng | Swiss army knife for daily Linux network plumbing |
| Kyanos | Networking analysis tool using eBPF |
| Arkime | Indexes full packet captures for rapid, large-scale traffic investigation |
| EtherApe | Graphical network monitor |
| darkstat | Captures network traffic, calculates usage statistics, and serves reports |
| justniffer | Network TCP packet sniffer with reliable TCP flow rebuilding |
| tcpflow | TCP/IP packet demultiplexer |
| tcpdump | Powerful and hugely respected command-line packet analyzer |
| sniffglue | Packet sniffer written in Rust |
| sniffer | Alternative network traffic sniffer |
| RustNet | Terminal monitor for connections and bandwidth |
| Malcolm | Traffic analysis suite for capture, hunting and forensics |
| dsniff | Collection of tools for network auditing and penetration testing |
| ngrep | grep applied to the network layer |
| Network Monitor | Rreal-time network connection monitoring tool |
| sniffit | CORBA based sniffer system with ncurses interactive mode |
| Jomon | Network forensics and sniffer tool |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Wireless Security Tools | |
|---|---|
| bettercap | Swiss Army knife for 802.11, BLE, IPv4 and IPv6 networks reconnaissance |
| airgeddon | Multi-use bash script for Linux systems to audit wireless networks |
| Fluxion | Wireless auditing framework for testing Wi-Fi network security |
| URH | Complete suite for wireless protocol investigation |
| aircrack-ng | WiFi security auditing tools suite |
| hcxtools | Tools for analysing Wi-Fi capture and hash files |
| wavemon | ncurses-based monitoring for wireless network devices |
| Kismet | 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, intrusion detection system |
| hcxdumptool | Capture packets from wlan devices |
| Wifite | Python script for auditing wireless networks |
| Fern Wifi Cracker | Wireless security auditing and attack software |
| WHAD | Framework for exploring, analysing and testing wireless protocols |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.