is a network detector,
Packet Sniffer , and
Intrusion Detection System for
802.11 Wireless LAN s. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports
Raw Monitoring Mode , and can sniff
802.11b ,
802.11a and
802.11g traffic. The program runs under
Linux ,
FreeBSD ,
NetBSD ,
OpenBSD , and
Mac OS X . The client can also run on
Windows , although a drone is the only compatible packet source.
Kismet is unlike most other wireless network detectors in that it works passively. This means that without sending any loggable packets, it is able to detect the presence of both
Wireless Access Point s and wireless clients, and associate them to each other.
Kismet also includes basic wireless
IDS features such as detecting ''active'' wireless sniffing programs including
NetStumbler , as well as a number of wireless network attacks.
Kismet has the ability to log all sniffed packets and save them in a
Tcpdump /
Wireshark or
Airsnort compatible fileformat.
To find as many networks as possible, kismet also supports optional channelhopping. This means that it constantly changes from channel but not in a repeating 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14 sequence but in a user-defined sequence with a default value that leaves big holes between channels (for example 1-6-11-2-7-12-3-8-13-4-9-14-5-10). The advantage with this method is that it will capture more packets because adjacent channels overlap.
Kismet also supports logging of the geographical co-ordinates of the network if the input from a
GPS receiver is additionally available.
Kismet has three separate parts. A ''drone'' can be used to collect packets, and then pass them on to a ''server'' for interpretation. A server can either be used in conjunction with a drone, or on its own, interpreting packet data, and extrapolating wireless information, and organizing it. The ''client'' communicates with the server and displays the information the server collects.
