Imagine walking through your neighborhood, your device effortlessly connecting to various invisible threads of connectivity. It’s convenient, yes, but it’s also a silent battlefield. Each network represents a fortress, with walls built from passwords and encryption protocols. But how strong are these walls? Are they impregnable shields or merely paper barriers against the siege engines of modern hackers?
Today, we’ll dive into the digital battlefield of Wi-Fi network security by showing you how to build a Wi-Fi scanner using Python, a powerful tool in the cybersecurity arsenal, we’ll learn how to scan Wi-Fi networks and assess their security if they are good or need improvement.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- Disclaimer
- Imports
- scan_wifi_networks Function
- analyze_network_security Function
- Defining Main Function
- Main Block
- Example
- Full Code
Disclaimer
Please note: before we proceed with this code, I must warn you not to use this code illegally or without consent since it is for educational purposes only.
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Imports
We start by importing the subprocess module so we can run commands on our computer’s system. Then we import the re module which can find specific words or phrases by using patterns to search through text.
After that, we import the sys module to use some basic system functionality.
import subprocess
import re
import sys
scan_wifi_networks Function
Next, we define our functions, we start with the Scan Wi-Fi function. This function works in two parts:
The first part is finding out the operating system (Windows, Linux, macOS) using the sys module.
The second one is executing the appropriate command to scan the Wi-Fi using the subprocess module which also handles any error that may occur during the scanning process, and by the end it returns all the Wi-Fi networks found in the area and their encryptions (wep, wpa, tkip) to the main function.
def scan_wifi_networks():
"""Scan for available Wi-Fi networks."""
try:
print("Scanning for Wi-Fi networks...")
if sys.platform.startswith('win'):
result = subprocess.check_output(['netsh', 'wlan', 'show', 'network'])
elif sys.platform.startswith('linux') or sys.platform.startswith('darwin'):
result = subprocess.check_output(['iwlist', 'scan'])
else:
print("Unsupported platform")
return
return result.decode('utf-8')
except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
print(f"Error: Unable to scan Wi-Fi networks. {e}")
return None
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
return None
analyze_network_security Function
After that, we create this one that evaluates the security of each Wi-Fi network found by the previous function, then it gives feedback if the security is strong or not and gives advice if needed by printing them.
def analyze_network_security(ssid, encryption_type):
"""Analyze the security of a Wi-Fi network."""
try:
print(f"Analyzing security for network: {ssid}")
# Check if encryption type is weak or vulnerable
if encryption_type.lower() in ['wep', 'wpa', 'tkip']:
print("Warning: Weak encryption type detected.")
print("Advice: Consider upgrading to WPA2 or WPA3 for stronger security.")
else:
print("Security: Strong")
print("Advice: Keep your Wi-Fi password strong and secure, and regularly update your router firmware.")
# You can add more checks for specific vulnerabilities here
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
Defining Main Function
Now we define the heart of the script, this one ensures that each function does its job in a smooth manner. When the user runs the script this function calls the scan_wifi_networks () function to extract encryptions of each Wi-Fi network, so it can pass those encryptions to the analyze_network_security () function to give its feedback.
def main():
wifi_scan_result = scan_wifi_networks()
if wifi_scan_result:
print("\nWi-Fi scan result:")
print(wifi_scan_result)
networks = re.findall(r'SSID\s\d+\s:\s(.+)', wifi_scan_result)
for ssid in networks:
print(f"\nSSID: {ssid}")
encryption_match = re.search(r'Encryption\s*:\s(.+)', wifi_scan_result)
if encryption_match:
encryption_type = encryption_match.group(1).strip()
print(f"Encryption Type: {encryption_type}")
analyze_network_security(ssid, encryption_type)
else:
print("Error: Unable to retrieve encryption type.")
else:
print("No Wi-Fi networks found or error occurred during scanning.")
Main Block
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
What this part does is basically tell the main function that you’re allowed to function only if the script is run directly, if it is imported as a module you will not function, therefore rendering the script useless in that case.
Example
Full Code
import subprocess
import re
import sys
def scan_wifi_networks():
"""Scan for available Wi-Fi networks."""
try:
print("Scanning for Wi-Fi networks...")
if sys.platform.startswith('win'):
result = subprocess.check_output(['netsh', 'wlan', 'show', 'network'])
elif sys.platform.startswith('linux') or sys.platform.startswith('darwin'):
result = subprocess.check_output(['iwlist', 'scan'])
else:
print("Unsupported platform")
return
return result.decode('utf-8')
except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
print(f"Error: Unable to scan Wi-Fi networks. {e}")
return None
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
return None
def analyze_network_security(ssid, encryption_type):
"""Analyze the security of a Wi-Fi network."""
try:
print(f"Analyzing security for network: {ssid}")
# Check if encryption type is weak or vulnerable
if encryption_type.lower() in ['wep', 'wpa', 'tkip']:
print("Warning: Weak encryption type detected.")
print("Advice: Consider upgrading to WPA2 or WPA3 for stronger security.")
else:
print("Security: Strong")
print("Advice: Keep your Wi-Fi password strong and secure, and regularly update your router firmware.")
# You can add more checks for specific vulnerabilities here
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
def main():
wifi_scan_result = scan_wifi_networks()
if wifi_scan_result:
print("\nWi-Fi scan result:")
print(wifi_scan_result)
networks = re.findall(r'SSID\s\d+\s:\s(.+)', wifi_scan_result)
for ssid in networks:
print(f"\nSSID: {ssid}")
encryption_match = re.search(r'Encryption\s*:\s(.+)', wifi_scan_result)
if encryption_match:
encryption_type = encryption_match.group(1).strip()
print(f"Encryption Type: {encryption_type}")
analyze_network_security(ssid, encryption_type)
else:
print("Error: Unable to retrieve encryption type.")
else:
print("No Wi-Fi networks found or error occurred during scanning.")
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Happy Coding!
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