How to set wireless interface to Monitor mode and Managed mode

Three ways to set wireless interface to Monitor mode and Managed mode

https://miloserdov.org/?p=126

You can use the following command to set wireless interface to Monitor mode and Managed mode on any Linux distro. The only requirement is availability wireless adapter that supports monitor mode. This one is recommended.

1. How to enable monitor mode using iw

You should check whether the operating system is able to recognize your Wi-Fi card. In addition, you need to know the name of the wireless interface.

Get to know the wireless interface name:

1	sudo iw dev

Output:

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phy#0     Interface wlan0         ifindex 3         wdev 0x1         addr 3a:c9:39:0d:fc:1a         type managed         txpower 20.00 dBm

As you can see, the name of my wireless interface is wlan0. In addition, you can see that it is in managed mode.

To set wireless interface to Monitor mode with iw you can use the following command sequence:

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sudo ip link set IFACE down sudo iw IFACE set monitor control sudo ip link set IFACE up

Where IFACE replace with actual name of your wireless interface. In may example:

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sudo ip link set wlan0 down sudo iw wlan0 set monitor control sudo ip link set wlan0 up

Then check the status of you wireless interface one more time:

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sudo iw dev phy#0     Interface wlan0         ifindex 3         wdev 0x1         addr 16:30:78:80:a3:26         type monitor         channel 1 (2412 MHz), width: 20 MHz (no HT), center1: 2412 MHz         txpower 20.00 dBm

As you can see, now type monitor. Note: the name of interface is not changed by this method.

To return wireless interface in Managed mode with iw you can use the following command sequence:

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sudo ip link set IFACE down sudo iw IFACE set type managed sudo ip link set IFACE up

Where IFACE replace with actual name of your wireless interface. In may example:

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sudo ip link set wlan0 down sudo iw wlan0 set type managed sudo ip link set wlan0 up

2. How to enable monitor mode using Airmon-ng

Again, we should get information about our wireless interface:

1	sudo airmon-ng

Output:

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PHY Interface   Driver      Chipset phy0    wlan0       rt2800usb   Ralink Technology, Corp. RT3572

The name of interface is wlan0.

Checking for interfering processes

Before putting a card into monitor mode, it will automatically check for interfering processes. It can also be done manually by running the following command:

1	sudo airmon-ng check

This command stops network managers then kill interfering processes left:

1	sudo airmon-ng check kill

At last, we start monitor mode:

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sudo airmon-ng start wlan0 PHY Interface   Driver      Chipset phy0    wlan0       rt2800usb   Ralink Technology, Corp. RT3572         (mac80211 monitor mode vif enabled for [phy0]wlan0 on [phy0]wlan0mon)         (mac80211 station mode vif disabled for [phy0]wlan0)

As you can see, it created a monitor mode interface called wlan0mon.

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sudo iwconfig wlan0mon  IEEE 802.11  Mode:Monitor  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Tx-Power=20 dBm             Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off           Power Management:off             lo        no wireless extensions. eth0      no wireless extensions.

Disable monitor mode

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sudo airmon-ng stop wlan0mon PHY Interface   Driver      Chipset phy0    wlan0mon    rt2800usb   Ralink Technology, Corp. RT3572         (mac80211 station mode vif enabled on [phy0]wlan0)         (mac80211 monitor mode vif disabled for [phy0]wlan0mon)

Don't forget to restart the Network Manager. It is usually done with the following command:

1	sudo systemctl start NetworkManager

3. How to enable monitor mode using iwconfig

As usual, start from checking interface name:

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sudo iwconfig lo        no wireless extensions. eth0      no wireless extensions. wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any            Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm             Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off           Encryption key:off           Power Management:off

The network interface with wireless extension is called wlan0.

Enable monitor mode:

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sudo ifconfig IFACE down sudo iwconfig IFACE mode monitor sudo ifconfig IFACE up

Actual example:

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sudo ifconfig wlan0 down sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Disable monitor mode:

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sudo ifconfig wlan0 down sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode managed sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

NetworkManager prevents monitor mode

If NetworkManager restarts automatically after each kill, and it pretends monitor mode, you can stop it manually:

In Kali Linux, BlackArch, Ubuntu, Linux Mint:

1	sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager

Note: when you stop NetworkManager, your Internet access disappears!