Filed under: Software, Freeware, Internet Tools, Open Source, MacBook
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt W said 9:24AM on 7-30-2007
Saying it doesn't work on Macbooks is completely wrong. I've been using it on mine basically since the day I got it. They also released support for the rt73 USB chipset not that long ago, which might not qualify as a MAJOR update, but it was progress.
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Nick K said 9:40AM on 7-30-2007
I confirm what Matt says, I use it on my macbook all the time. I'm not sure about the prebuilt release, but the latest svn version does work with my mbp. Also I just happened to look at the trac information only a few days ago on this project, because I was downloading the newest source to compile; When I looked there were updates almost on a daily basis. These were rather small updates maybe just a few lines of doc or code, but I notices that chip sets were still being added.
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Robin said 9:42AM on 7-30-2007
It works on the macbook, but is useless for cracking as i can't do packet injection with the built in Airport
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Eli Hodapp said 9:45AM on 7-30-2007
I've been using Kismac on my MBP for quite some time now, it works awesome. I can't say I'm surprised that TUAW didn't check their facts before they posted this.
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Blair said 9:57AM on 7-30-2007
As #3 stated... The program works, but is generally useless on an Intel Mac as you can't do packet injection. It works well for monitoring and informational purposes, but thats not really the point of the program, is it? So yeah, I'd say it doesn't work on Macbooks.
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Panzarino said 5:19AM on 7-31-2007
Regardless, cracking the password on wireless networks is a long winded process. The program has to collect 2 million 'weak' packets. Unless it is a high traffic network, or you can do packet injection (of which you can't do with an Airport card - therefore you can rule out most mac users) the frequency of these weak packets is about the same as a drop of water in the desert.
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Jack said 10:28AM on 7-30-2007
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
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Carl Trimble said 10:39AM on 7-30-2007
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.
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Ondra Soukup said 10:57AM on 7-30-2007
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...
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Ondra Soukup said 11:01AM on 7-30-2007
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 ;)
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sam said 12:08PM on 7-30-2007
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/
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Tim Dorr said 1:08PM on 7-30-2007
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.
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Aron Trimble said 1:25PM on 7-30-2007
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
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Aaron Gyes said 3:10PM on 7-30-2007
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.
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sam said 6:58PM on 7-30-2007
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.
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themacuser said 9:28PM on 7-30-2007
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.
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