Wireless Network Audits using Open Source tools

Wireless networks following the 802.11b or 'WiFi' standard are becoming extremely popular due to their ease of installation. At the same time a well-designed and secure installation of a WiFi network is not a trivial task. Many companies therefore need professional help to audit their WiFi deployments or pilots and ensure that their use of this new technology is not done at the expense of security and performance. Many tools exist to enable security professionals to do WiFi networks surveys ranging from 'Free' Open source tools to sophisticated commercial products. The intention of this paper is to show that Open Source tools are particularly well-suited for doing WiFi surveys and will detail a practical setup and the capabilities it offers.