802.11 Sniffing May 2026

A Wi-Fi sniffer, however, places the wireless network interface card (NIC) into a special mode called (or RFMON mode). In this mode, the NIC disables its packet filtering and captures every 802.11 frame it can detect on a given channel, regardless of destination MAC address, encryption, or connection state.

802.11 sniffing, often called Wi-Fi sniffing or wireless packet analysis, is the process of capturing data packets traveling over a wireless local area network (WLAN). Unlike wired Ethernet networks, which transmit data through cables, 802.11 networks use radio frequencies (typically 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz). This makes their data inherently broadcast and, under the right conditions, accessible to anyone with a compatible receiver. How It Works: The Basics of RF Capture A standard Wi-Fi network card is designed to communicate only with a specific access point (AP) after authentication and association. It filters out packets not addressed to it. 802.11 sniffing