Chapter 2. Wireless Network Scanning

Scanning wireless networks in the target environment and collecting information about the access points and clients connected to them are the primary tasks in any wireless pentest. The outcome of the scanning phase is a list of access points in operation, connected wireless clients, MAC addresses of APs and clients, the channel(s) they are operating on, the signal strength, the authentication methods deployed, and the encryption schemes being used.

In this chapter, we will be covering the following topics:

• The 802.11 terminology
• 802.11 network composition
• Scanning tools