
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.