Kismet (software)

Kismet is a free passive wireless sniffer to detect wireless networks.

Passive means that Kismet does not send requests to the networks, but the packages sent by this mitliest. For this purpose, the wireless card in the so-called " monitor mode " is switched. Thus (E) SSIDs can be found, inter alia, also known as "hidden".

It is subject to the GPL and runs on GNU / Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X and Windows. In the latter case, however, you need Cygwin. Together with a GPS receiver and a script that comes with Kismet, the found networks can be mapped. Kismet can also cooperate with the also free software GpsDrive. The networks in real-time appear as waypoints on the map displayed on GpsDrive.

Area of ​​application

Kismet is not only used in wardriving, but can also be used to check their own WLAN security and determine the signal strength. In addition, it can also be used as a Wireless Intrusion Detection System ( IDS).

Supplement

Kismet is now available as a standalone program under Windows. The standalone version is called Kiswin and is present in version 0.1. Kiswin is purely a client to access a server Kismet.