Aircrack-ng is a tool used for what purpose in wireless security?

• A. Sniffing network traffic
• B. Cracking WEP/WPA keys
• C. Scanning for hosts
• D. Configuring firewalls

Answer: (B)

Aircrack-ng is used to crack wireless encryption keys, enabling testers to evaluate how strong WEP and WPA/WPA2 protections are after collecting enough encrypted data. For WEP, it exploits weaknesses in the IVs and uses statistical attacks to recover the key from captured packets. For WPA/WPA2, it requires a captured 4-way handshake and then applies a dictionary (or rule-based) attack to guess the PSK. This is why it’s the best answer: its main role in wireless security testing is recovering the passphrase to assess network security. While the suite can sniff traffic or inject frames, the central purpose in security testing is key recovery, not just observing traffic, scanning for hosts, or configuring firewalls. Use it only with proper authorization and in a controlled environment.