Howto get passive mode working on Intel-Macs using KisMac
March 31st, 2007 at 16:04EDIT: check the comments for more informations
If you are interested in WiFi sniffing you might know Kismet. I guess it is the most comman application for Linux users. After my switch to Apple computers i was wondering if there are similar applications.
Basicly there is an application called KisMac. You can get compiled Universal binaries from the project download section. The main problem with those files is, that you dont get the lastest development state form the Kismac project using that way. I was trying to get passive mode working on my Intel MacBookPro using the latest .dmg release and it was not working.
According to the KisMac Wiki/FAQ in there Trac System it is not really supported for Intel MacBooks right now. Even a short discussion with some dev’s gave me the same result. It will not work.
Well lets see 
To get it working you have to follow these steps:
- Get Subversion for your mac
- Get XCode for your mac
- Download the latest Kismac trunk out of the project Trac Subversion repository
- Compile Kismac yourself
- Run KisMac as admin and change some preferences
- Enjoy passive mode sniffing using your KisMac build
Now lets describe that a bit more detailed
Step 1 – Get Subversion for your mac
As first step you need a working subversion on your mac. A good place to start getting informations regarding subversion is Subversion.Tigris.org and for sure Wikipedia.
As using subversion on a mac seems to be still not that common here a short summary. There are several clients, all not really that good. A comman way is using FINK or MacPorts to get Subversion on your Mac.
Best and fastest way in my case was to get some compiled Subversion Package from the page of Martin Ott and just using the basic terminal-based function of the SVN-Client. In my case i got a package called subversion-1.4.3.pkg.
Finally install the .pkg and continue with Step 2.
Step 2 – Get Xcode for your mac
I guess you already have Xcode & Developer tools installed, if not, insert your Apple Install CD/DVD and install it from there.
Another solution would be an ADC Account and downloading the lastest release directly from Apple. The basic account should be free.
Lets assume you have XCode now, lets continue with Step 3
Step 3 – Download the latest Kismac trunk out of the project Trac Subversion repository
EDIT: note that this url has changed
As you have subversion now installed on your Mac, lets check if it is working. The target is to get the latest Subversion Trunk from the Kismac project.
Open Terminal.app and enter the following command.
svn co https://svn.binaervarianz.de/kismac/trunk/ desired target path/folder
So i did:
svn co https://svn.binaervarianz.de/kismac/trunk/ /Users/fidel/DEV/subversion/kismac
to get the files to my development folder. There is also a Web-access to the trunk files, but i dont like that way.
To finish this step make sure you have all files offered at the mentioned Web-access in somewhere on your mac
Step 4 – Compile Kismac yourself
Now its time to compile the KisMac source. The project developers made that really basic, so even not-programmers can handle that step.
Just double-click the file compile.command. It should open a Terminal windows and you should see the compile progress. If you are interested in the compile.command itself, take a look on it here.
Lets assume the compile worked without an error output. In my case it was the 228 Revision of Kismac. You should have a build-folder inside your downloaded trunk files. This build-folder includes a folder called Universal. Your fresh compiled Kismac version is located there.
Step 5 – Run KisMac as admin and change some preferences
Run your new Kismac build. Afaik you should run KisMac as OSX user with admin rights. If you start a scan now its still in active mode, which is not that interesting
Switch to KisMac preferences, goto Driver and select Apple airport Extreme Card, passive mode and finish this setting pressing the add button.
It makes sense to check all other settings too, but basicly you have a working passive mode now. It is important to mention that Injection is still not working on Macbooks but ok. Lets see how KisMac develops
Step 6 – Enjoy passive mode sniffing using your KisMac build
Now lets start your first passive scan using KisMac. Just press the Start scan button at the main window.
Some final link/information you maybe need:
I hope everything is working and you feel happy. enjoy it
Best regards
fidel
Tags: intel, KisMAC, kismet, network, passive mode, subversion, svn, wifi
September 22nd, 2008 at 20:41
I got this error:
svn: PROPFIND request failed on ‘/kismac/trunk’
svn: PROPFIND of ‘/kismac/trunk’: 405 Method Not Allowed (https://svn.binaervarianz.de)
Is that because of the article above, which mentions it is no longer hosted in Germany? Where is the new host?
September 22nd, 2008 at 20:51
Hi Ivan
the new homepage of KisMac is:
–
http://trac.kismac-ng.org/
–
Since the stupid law-change in germany i haven’t tried that anymore
I would advice you to check there for more details, but i can re-try that with the new source if you have problems.
Just leave me a reply.
Hope i could help
Best regards
fidel
September 28th, 2008 at 09:03
[...] Howto get passive mode working on Intel-Macs using KisMac | macfidelity [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 20:07
[...] Hier im Blog findet sich auch eine alte Anleitung zum Thema, jedoch sollte diese deutlich zu alt sein um dem aktuellen Stand noch im Detail zu entsprechen. [...]
January 25th, 2009 at 22:51
sir,
can you please write more details of step 3, 4.
i m newb and i m doign whatever is written in the blog. im not programmer so dont know how to compile and where to go. your help will be greatly appriciated.
January 26th, 2009 at 08:41
Hi Mohammad,
can you explain which parts in Section 3 and 4 you don’t understand ?
In Step 3 i use the Terminal.app which is located in /applications/Utilities to run a terminal-command. This terminal-command is based on svn-client and downloads all files to your computer
Step 4 is abotu the compile process – which is really simplified in KisMac as you have a single file which you just have to double-click.
Feel free to ask further
Best regards
fidel
January 26th, 2009 at 16:08
Dear Fidel,
my mackbook 2.4 (non pro) is working and scanning in passive mode. i dont know even i didnt follow you steps. the problem is i cannot add injection.
from the web blogs i come to know that injection witn intel based mac is not allowed. may be in future they will do.
i m sad. i orderd wireless usb alpha awus036h and my driver will bring it after 1 hour.
instead of this, i have another PC desktop computer there i have PCI wireless card rtl160 and i boot from BT3 cd and every thing goes very fine.
but there also i m unable to inject pacekts and the fake authentication. it only says sending authentication and then after it says unsuccess.
third problem is i made usb bootable for BT3 but it also never works. i dont know how to boot from usb in Macbook, holding option key in startup doesnt shows the boot from USB.
i tried to boot from desktop computer it also doesnt work there.
forth problem.
i made partition from bootcamp in macbook, i find out that i cannot make sub partitions during installation of windows vista. so during setup i delete the bootcamp partition and rebuild the partion of my desire size, and leave the rest size unpartitioned.
after installtion vista i remake the unpartitioned space as another drive comptuer management.
now actually i deleted bootcamp partition so mac os x leopard is unable to show me windows partition. its not working on this volume. and when i restart and try to boot from BackTrack3 bootable cd, during loading it gives me error while “looking for root directory” unable to find bt3 boot dirctory please copy bt3 folder manually. i did it but still not loading from cd.
(i think becoz i deleted bootcamp partition so all records of boot camp has gone so BT3 is also not recognizing this partition)
i hope you will understand my stupid problems. i m totally stuck dont know what to do.
thanks for your attention and reply.
is there any way so i can talk to you directly. for more explation. i m from UAE Dubai. i use also yahoo messanger. my id is dr_younas@yahoo.com
thanks agian.
regards,
Mohammad Younas
January 26th, 2009 at 18:51
Hi Mohammad,
regarding Injection:
My blog post is from 03.2007 – so its somehow outdated. Those days even passive mode was known as not working- while it worked for me after compiling kismac myself.
Right now using KisMac is not longer allowed in my country due to stupid law-changes.
So im somehow limited taking a look on the current state of the project.
Those days injection was just not possible at all
regarding BT3:
to be honest- i dont even know the BackTrack3 project- gonna take a look later maybe
regarding booting from USB:
Intel Macs offer all bootable devices if you press the ALT/Option key while booting. If your CD does not appear there something is really wrong with your drive or cd.
I’m sorry not using yahoo messenger at all – but i dont think i can help you that much via comments regarding the bootcamp issue:
Best hint is visiting ##mac or #macosx in irc.freenode.net -> both are good english IRC support channels for mac users.
Best regards
fidel
November 15th, 2009 at 23:00
I am a noob when it comes to computer programing. I would like to get the passive mode of kismac to work on this Macbook 2.0 ghz intel core duo. I have gotten to step 3 but i cant get it to work i entered :
svn co http://svn.edgewall.org/repos/bitten//users/username/Desktop/subkismac
but i got this back
-bash: svn: command not found)
I am not sure what to do for here. i got the http:// … form http://bitten.edgewall.org/ and assumed it was correct. could you tell me what i am doing wrong? thanks
November 16th, 2009 at 17:02
@jones:
This article is not up to date and i dont have any wifi-hardware to play with that tech right now – sorry.
you should start here:
> http://trac.kismac-ng.org/wiki/tutorials
regarding svn:
svn = subversion -> see step 1 in the article.
Best Regards
fidel