In order to run the tools necessary for this attack, there are several programs that must be installed on your Mac. All of these programs will be installed from the terminal.
Terminal is a Command Line System that allows you to tell your operating system to execute certain commands. Basically, it is a way for you to talk to your Mac. We are going to use Terminal during this entire attack. If that scares you, don’t be worried. We will walk you through every step! Your grandmother would be able to follow this guide, so stick with us! To open up Terminal:
Open the "Finder" application in the bottom left-hand corner of your Mac’s home screen.
Open the "Applications" folder.
Open the "Utilities" folder by clicking on the dropdown arrow.
Double click on the "Terminal" application.
There are four tools we need to install that will be used in our WiFi attack. The first tool, Xcode, will be installed through the App Store, but the rest of the tools will be installed using Terminal.
IMPORTANT: Any time one of these steps prompts for a password, enter the password used to unlock your computer, and then hit enter. (Your password will not appear in text as you type so do not worry about that.)
The first tool we need to install is Xcode. Xcode has software development tools that we will need to install our next tool.
If you already have Xcode installed, skip below to the HomeBrew Install section.
To install Xcode:
Navigate to the “Applications” folder as described in the Opening up Terminal section.
Double click on the “App Store” icon to open the Apple App Store.
If you have not already installed Xcode, there will be a “Get” button next to the app icon. Click on this button and follow the prompts to install.
Installation Time: Depending on previous installations, Xcode could take over an hour to install. Thankfully, many people will already have Xcode installed on their Mac.
The second tool we need to install is HomeBrew. HomeBrew is a package manager (basically a tool to install other tools) for Mac that will allow you to install the last tool that we need.
If you already have HomeBrew installed, skip below to the HashCat Install section.
To install HomeBrew:
Open Terminal as described in the Opening up Terminal section.
Copy and paste this command into Terminal: ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Press enter to execute the command.
Installation Time: Five to twenty minutes.
The last tool we need to install is HashCat. HashCat is a password cracking tool that we will use to crack the “password hash” that we will recover (more on that later).
If you already have HashCat installed, you can click on the next page to begin Executing the Attack!
We will install HashCat using HomeBrew from Terminal.
Open Terminal as described in the “Opening up Terminal” section.
Copy and paste this command into Terminal: brew install hashcat
Press enter to execute the command.
Installation Time: Two to ten minutes.
In the search bar, search for “Xcode”.
