Monitor Mode

Monitor mode or monitor mode refers to a specific mode of operation of a wireless adapter in which all network frames received are passed to the operating system and applications.

In monitor mode, in contrast to the promiscuous mode forwarded all received frames, not only the network to which the client is currently connected. One advantage is that not a single frame has to be sent from the own network card and therefore the interception of the frames is not seen in any log files. Furthermore, no network authentication is required. Are the frame packets encrypted with WEP, for example, so they can be recorded and later decrypted.

Some network card driver in monitor mode Skip checksum verification of the cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check ) of the frame, which leads to erroneous frames can be forwarded. The integrity of the data is therefore not ensured in monitor mode.

In addition, not all drivers the opportunity to put the card into the monitor mode, or allow in monitor mode not sending packets.