KisMAC dev calls it quits

Reader Andrew dropped a note that Michael Rossberg, developer of KisMAC, the wireless network sniffer based on Kismet, has declared the project discontinued. I can't get the project's website to load (most likely because it's been Slashdotted), but apparently the reason Rossberg gave was that a change in Germany's laws would make it dangerous for him to continue working on it. The law apparently makes it illegal for anyone to sniff out a password that "allows access to data", and since that's a big part of KisMAC's function, Rossberg is calling it quits.

But he is asking for interested parties to continue his work, in the EU or the US, so if the site ever returns, feel free to grab the source and check it out yourself.

Of course, from what Slashdot commenters are saying, this isn't much of a loss anyway-- the program hasn't seen any real updates in a long time, and apparently it didn't even work with the new MacBooks. In terms of network finders, there's lots more to choose from (including iStumbler, which I didn't mention in the other article), but in terms of cracking WEP and WPA keys (legally, of course), are there any other OS X specific options out there?

Update: Clarification: the program will run on MacBooks, but it doesn't do anything but find networks, which is just a fraction of the intended functionality.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KisMAC

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Reader Andrew dropped a note that Michael Rossberg, developer of KisMAC, the wireless network sniffer based on Kismet, has declared the...

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themacuser

It works fine on MacBooks. The only feature that doesn't work (yet) is active reinjection, which has never been supported on internal hardware.

Oh, and development may just continue outside Germany.

July 30 2007 at 9:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sam

Might as well update it again - I can collect packets all day long and my friend's macbooks can as well.

It's a matter of compiling it on your platform.

July 30 2007 at 6:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Aaron

It can crack WEP on my MacBook. It can't do injection, but if you're watching while someone else is connected to the network it can work.

July 30 2007 at 2:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

aron t

Mike,

If you build the latest release from SVN you get a third-party add-in driver that can be loaded on the fly for doing all of the more "interesting" things that KisMAC is capable of.

Aron T

July 30 2007 at 1:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim Dorr

First, the project isn't dying, it's just going to move to alternate hosting: http://kismac.tehbin.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=41&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Unofficial offical binaries are here: http://tehbin.com/Bin/KisMAC/trunk/ You'll need those if you have 10.4.10 installed.

July 30 2007 at 1:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sam

HEre is a copy of Kismac I compiled and should work on core duo macbook pros. There is also a link there on how to compile your own if it doesn't work.

http://gthing.net/kismac-for-macbook-pro/

July 30 2007 at 12:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ondra Soukup

And if you're really serious about cracking some WEP keys, you may already have a bunch of Prism2 USB cards with R-SMA connector soldered on ;)

Or Asus wl-500gx replaced with athreos mini-pci card, 40GB USB drive to have some place to collect packets and OpenWRT with kismet on it ;)
(it's nice to leave this cheap $250 kit hidden somewhere for a week and have the key when you return ;)

July 30 2007 at 11:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ondra Soukup

No update ? WTF are you talking about!?! Yes, maybe no releases but the subversion has been pretty active and it worked on MacBook if you compiled it yourself...

July 30 2007 at 10:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Carl Trimble

Son of a! I want to be able to crack wep keys on my intel mac! I wish we had a good port of kismet.

July 30 2007 at 10:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jack Palkens

Aww... sad

But still, I don't think the original Kismac version on his website worked on my macbook, I had do go elsewhere where someone configured it to work.

But it DOES work on a macbook... just no packet injection :(

-Jack

July 30 2007 at 10:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply