Installing Aircrack-ng from Source

Requirements
Linux

• Kernel headers and gcc as well as make have to be installed on your system. On
Debian-based distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, …), issue the following
command in a console to install them:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

• OpenSSL (development). It is called openssl-dev or libssl-dev depending on your

distribution.

The following is required only if you want airolib-ng:

• SQLite (development) > 3.3.17 (but latest version is recommended)

Windows

It requires additional libraries to be installed:

• OpenSSL (development): openssl-devel

The following is required only if you want airolib-ng:

• SQLite (development) > 3.3.17 (but latest version is recommended): libsqlite3-

devel

OS X

Install the following via macports:

• gmake 3.81
• sqlite3

Compiling and installing

Note: For OS X, use 'gmake' instead of 'make'.

Current version
It requires some additional libraries:

• OpenSSL (libssl-dev on Debian-based system)

• SQLite > 3.3.17 (latest version is recommended) if you want to use airolib-ng

wget http://download.aircrack-ng.org/aircrack-ng-1.1.tar.gz
tar -zxvf aircrack-ng-1.1.tar.gz
cd aircrack-ng-1.1
make
make install

Compiling with airolib-ng support

Simply append 'sqlite=true' parameter to make and make install:

make sqlite=true
make sqlite=true install

OS X

Change CFLAGS in src/Makefile to point to the macpports install of sqlite3 before

compiling. Change the following line:

CFLAGS += -Iinclude

to

CFLAGS += -Iinclude -arch i386 -I/opt/local/include -L/opt/local/lib

Compiling with Airpcap support (cygwin only)

1. Copy 'developer' directory from the Airpcap CD at the same level as 'aircrack-ng'
directory
2. Append 'airpcap=true' parameter to make:

make airpcap=true
make install

Compiling with airolib-ng and Airpcap support (cygwin only)

Simply append both parameter to make and make install:

make sqlite=true airpcap=true

make sqlite=true install

Compiling with CUDA support

This is still under heavy development so it is not yet been added to the backtrack
repositories however it deserves mentioning. Aircrack can be built with a switch to add
GPU acceleration. In order to do this we need to grab aircrack from svn. You must have
the CUDA toolkit and the sdk already installed to be able to build this.

svn co http://trac.aircrack-ng.org/svn/branch/aircrack-ng-cuda
aircrack-ng-cuda

Next we will build it like normal but it needs a few extra arguments:

cd aircrack-ng-cuda
CUDA=true make
make CUDA=true sqlite=true unstable=true install

Also see: BackTrack 4 CUDA Guide

Latest SVN (development) Sources

svn co http://trac.aircrack-ng.org/svn/trunk aircrack-ng
cd aircrack-ng

and as usual

make
make install

or if you want sqlite and the experimental (unstable) programs

make sqlite=true unstable=true

make sqlite=true unstable=true install

Nightly Build

http://nightly.aircrack-ng.org/ contains a nightly tarball from each day. This is handy if

you don't have access to SVN (subversion). Just download and build per building the
current version instructions. Optionally you can enable the extra features with
“sqlite=true” and “unstable=true” per above.

Legacy
wget http://download.aircrack-ng.org/aircrack-ng-0.9.3.tar.gz
tar -zxvf aircrack-ng-0.9.3.tar.gz
cd aircrack-ng-0.9.3
make
make install

Installing airoscript
First, ensure you have the gettext package installed. Depending on the distribution you
are running and the package manager, the command is typically “yum -y install gettext”
Or “sudo apt-get install gettext” on Ubuntu.

For the latest production version, see this thread.

For the latest development version from SVN:

svn co http://trac.aircrack-ng.org/svn/branch/airoscript/ airoscript

The command above places the files into a directory called airoscript.

Then you must su to root and then:

cd airoscript
make

At this point you are ready to use airoscript by simply typing “airoscript”.

Troubleshooting Tips
"command not found" error message

After you do “make install” then try to use any of the aircrack-ng suite commands, you
get the error message “command not found” or similar. Your system will look for the
aircrack-ng commands in the directories defined by the PATH command.

Normally, the aircrack-ng suite programs and man pages are placed in:

/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/sbin
/usr/local/man

On your system, to determine which directories have the aircrack-ng programs enter the
following. If using “locate” be sure to first run “updatedb”.

locate aircrack-ng
locate airmon-ng

or

find / -name aircrack-ng

find / -name airmon-ng

Once you know the directories (exclude the source directories) then determine which
directories are in your PATH. To see which directories are included in PATH on your
particular system enter:
 echo $PATH

It should show something like:

/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/lib/ccache:/usr/local/sbin:/
usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin

At this point compare the actual locations with the directories in your PATH. If the
directories are missing from your PATH then you have a few options:

• Add the directories to your PATH. See the one or more of the following web sites
for details of how to do this:

http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/basic/path.shtml
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-print-path-variable/
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/prepostpath.htm
http://linux.about.com/od/linux101/l/blnewbie3_1_4.htm

• Change to the particular directory with “cd” and then run the commands from
within the directory. Don't forget to add ”./” in front of each command.

• Specify the full path for each command. So if aircrack-ng is located in the
”/usr/local/bin” directory then run the command as ”/usr/local/bin/aircrack-ng”.

• Specify the location prefix when installing. Lets say you have /usr/bin and
/usr/sbin directories in your PATH, then do “make prefix=/usr install”. This will
install the programs to /usr/bin and /usr/sbin.

"build" - No such file or directory

On Debian-based distros, if you get something similar to:

/bin/sh: line 0: cd: /lib/modules/2.6.15-28-amd64-generic/build: No

such file or directory
Makefile.inc:66: *** /lib/modules/2.6.15-28-amd64-generic/build is
missing, please set KERNELPATH.
Stop.

Solution:

The build directory gets installed together with the kernel headers, so either you lack the
correct headers or your KERNELPATH is wrong. Please check that `uname -r` returns
“2.6.15-28-amd64-generic”.

Do a “sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`” or just “sudo apt-get install linux-
headers”.
If uname returns exactly that string and the current headers are installed, the remove the
headers and install them again. Also check /usr/src for installed header files, maybe it got
mixed up for whatever reason.

In the above examples, needless to say, change “2.6.15-28-amd64-generic” to whatever

you are running.

"openssl/hmac.h" - No such file or directory

If you get something similar to:

crypto.h:12:26: error: openssl/hmac.h: No such file or directory

crypto.h:13:25: error: openssl/sha.h: No such file or directory
crypto.h:15:25: error: openssl/rc4.h: No such file or directory
crypto.h:16:25: error: openssl/aes.h: No such file or directory

Solution: You are missing the OpenSSL development package. Depending on the
distribution, download and install openssl-devel or libssl-devel. Or worst case, install it
from source: http://www.openssl.org.

"zlib.h" No such file or directory

If you get something similar to:

wesside-ng.c:54:18: error: zlib.h: No such file or directory

Solution: You are missing the zlib development package. Depending on the distribution,
download and install zlib-devel. Or worst case, install it from source: http://www.zlib.net.

"__le64" error on 64 bit machines when compiling

You get something similar to:

radiotap-parser.h:29: error: conflicting types for ‘__le64’

/usr/include/linux/types.h:158: error: previous declaration of
‘__le64’ was here

See this thread for a solution.

Installing pre-compiled binaries

Linux
Open your package manager and install 'aircrack-ng' package. Be sure to check that the
version offered is up-to-date – you may see problems with older versions, especially if
you have a card for which support was added recently, e.g. ACX, Broadcom or Intel.
Ubuntu and Debian are particularly problematic in this matter.

Windows
The Windows version of the aircrack-ng suite does not have an install program. You
must manually install (unzipping archive) the software.

Here are the steps to follow for Windows XP:

• Download the latest version of the aircrack-ng suite for Windows to your PC. The
link for the zip file can be found on the Wiki home page.

• Unzip the contents of the aircrack-ng zip file into “C:\”. This will create a
directory called “aircrack-ng-0.9.3-win”. This directory name will vary based on
the exact version that you downloaded. This main directory contains three
subdirectories - “bin”, “src” and “test”.

Prior to using the software, make sure to install the drivers for your particular wireless
card. See this link for the instructions.

To now use the aircrack-ng suite, start Windows Explorer and double click on Aircrack-
ng GUI.exe inside “bin” subdirectory. The GUI requires .NET Framework 2.0 to run
(.NET Frameworks 1.0/1.1 are not able to run this executable, 2.0 or better MUST be
installed).

Alternatively, open a command prompt (Start menu → Execute → cmd.exe) and change
to the “C:\aircrack-ng-0.9-win\bin” directory and execute the individual commands.

Important notes:

• Remember that Windows only supports a limited subset of the commands.

• Some troubleshooting tips specific to XP and Vista can be found on this page.

Installing on Mac OSX

The simplest and easiest way to install on Mac OS X is via Macports. You simply do
“sudo port install aircrack-ng”.

Alternatively, use the following instructions:

Make sure you have Xcode installed on your Mac, which can be found on the installer
CD/DVD which came with your Mac. After getting the source you can do a simple
“make && sudo make install” from the untarred directory. When you use the stable, you
need to rename the Makefile.osx to Makefile and when you use the dev version it will
autodetect you are using Darwin and compile fine.

Mind you, airodump-ng and aireplay-ng are linux only and will not work under OSX
native, so for reinjecting and sniffing you will have to use other means.

If you have an intel Mac check out the VMware Fusion option which is mentioned lower
on this page.

Optional is openssl-dev and sqlite3 which can be installed through fink

Installing on OpenBSD
See this thread for instructions on installing and using the aircrack-ng suite on OpenBSD.

Installing VMware Image

Important Note: Virtualization solutions (VMware/VirtualBox/Virtual PC/…) only
work with USB cards. Card that are PCI/MiniPCI/PCMCIA/CardBus/Express Card/PCI
Express/PCI-X/MiniPCI Express won't work at all.

Requirements
• VMWare Workstation 6.02, VMWare Player 2.02 (freeware) or VMWare Fusion
beta for intel based Mac's
• Wireless USB with one of the following chipsets:
o rtl8187
o rt2570
o rt73
• Approximately 2Gb of hard disk space

Important note: VMWare Workstation 6.5 (and maybe Player 2.5 too) is known not to
work correctly with rtl8187 driver. It uses the whole CPU and it seems to be hanging (it
is really slow) for an unknown reason.

Starting
1. Install VMWare Workstation or Player
2. Download this VMware image here or via BitTorrent and unpack it somewhere.
3. Start VMware and select “open”. Open the virtual machine.
4. Attach your USB adapter.
 5. If the USB adapter is recognized automatically you'll find a small USB icon in the
lower right corner of your VMWare window. If not you have to attach it
manually.

Notes:

• Uncompress the file on a filesystem that supports large files; NTFS, ext3, … (all
FAT filesystems, including FAT32, do not support large files).
• Use 7-zip or Winrar (at least latest stable version) on Windows. For Linux (and
other OSes), use p7zip (it should be in the repositories of your distribution).
• Here are a few reasons why the download doesn't work:
o That sounds logical but make sure the URL is correct.
o Check your DNS, make sure it can resolve “download.aircrack-ng.org”
(by the way, the server answers to ping). If it doesn't, use OpenDNS
(Primary: 208.67.222.222 - Secondary: 208.67.220.220).
• You don't need any driver for wireless adapters (and other USB adapters) on the
OS running VMware.
• The login credentials for the image are user id “root” with password “root”. On
some versions the password is “toor”.
• The FAQ has some limited information about running the aircrack-ng suite under
VMWare.

Manually attaching USB device

On VMware Player, the device should be shown in the title bar, click on it to activate it.
On VMware Workstation, use menu “VM→Removable devices→USB” and then select
the device:

It will automatically unplug the device from windows and attach it to the virtual machine.

Loading Wireless Device Drivers

The drivers can be loaded via the menu inside the VM: