How to Enable Monitor mode in wireless adapter in Linux

 How to Enable Monitor Mode in Linux?

As we all know sudo airmon-ng start wlan0 is no longer working in Linux to enable monitor mode. So we are going to provide new tricks and methods which definitely enable monitor mode in Linux. I tried these methods in popular Linux. i.e, (Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Parrot Linux, PoP! OS, Mx Linux, Arch Linux, Arco Linux, Manjaro Linux, Arco Linux, Artix Linux, etc..)  And it's working

sudo airmon-ng start wlan0 is not working

💻Table of contents


⚪What is Monitor mode?

Monitor mode is one of the powerful mode of a WiFi adapter (Wireless adapter) which is capable to capture/monitor sensitive information of all channels of a Wireless network and perform different kinds of attacks i.e,(Packet injection, DOS attack, Capturing Handshake, etc..) without being associated with Wireless Network which are in the range of attacker or pentester system.

Monitor mode  sudo airodump-ng mon




⚪How to enable Monitor mode in Linux?

There are many methods which allow us to enable monitor mode in Linux. Some of the methods are given below👇

①.Changing wireless network adapter from managed mode into monitor mode

To know your wireless adapter interface name, run once iwconfig in the terminal. You'll get your interface name and mode.
iwconfig
iwconfig wireless interface mode checker
Note: If your interface mode is in Auto like this Mode:Auto , then you don't need to turn your WiFi adapter in monitor mode. Auto mode works with managed and monitor mode at the same time.


ⓐ. Using airmon-ng

First of all we have to install aircrack-ng to execute airmon-ng and airodump-ng.

Install aircrack-ng in Arch based distro (Manjaro, ArcoLinux, EndeavourOS, Artix, Archlabs, Archman, etc...)
 sudo pacman --noconfirm -S aircrack-ng 

Install aircrack-ng in Debian based distro (Ubuntu, Kali, Parrot, PoP!_OS, Mx Linux, Zorin OS, Sparky Linux etc...)
sudo apt-get install -y aircrack-ng


Now It's time to turn on monitor mode
 sudo airmon-ng check
 sudo airmon-ng check kill
 sudo airmon-ng start [INTERFACE]

Note: Don't forget to replace [INTERFACE] with your wireless adapter interface name. In my case, my wireless interface name is wlan0 which is in Managed mode.
  i.e,  sudo airmon-ng start wlan0
sudo airmon-ng start wlan0



ⓑ. Using ip link and iwconfig

 sudo ifconfig [INTERFACE] down
 sudo iwconfig [INTERFACE] mode monitor
 sudo ifconfig [INTERFACE] up

Note: Don't forget to replace [INTERFACE] with your wireless adapter interface name. In my case, my wireless interface name is wlan1 which is in Managed mode.
  i.e,  sudo ifconfig wlan1 down
iwconfig and ifconfig enable monitor mode in linux



sudo ip link set [INTERFACE] down
sudo iw [INTERFACE] set monitor control
sudo ip link set [INTERFACE] up

Note: Don't forget to replace [INTERFACE] with your wireless adapter interface name. In my case, my wireless interface name is wlan1 which is in Managed mode.
  i.e,  sudo ip link set wlan1 down
Enable monitor mode by Using ip link and iw tool




②. Adding an additional interface in the wireless network adapter using iw tool

It's a little bit different from the previous one where we used to enable monitor mode in the present wireless adapter, which basically enables monitor mode by changing our Wireless interface Mode: Managed into Mode: Monitor.  But here we are going to add one another interface in our present wireless adapter.
sudo iw  [INTERFACE]  interface add  [NEW_INTERFACE]  type  [MODE]

Note: Don't forget to replace
            [INTERFACE]: to    your Wi-Fi adapter interface
            [NEW_INTERFACE]: to       Any name for monitor mode
            [MODE]: to        monitor OR managed

Enable disable monitor mode by iw tools


Example,

ⓐ. Adding monitor mode by iw 

 sudo iw  [INTERFACE]  interface add  [NEW_INTERFACE]  type monitor 
i.e,    
    sudo iw wlan0 interface add wlan0mon type monitor
sudo iw wlan0 interface add wlan0mon type monitor


ⓑ. Adding managed mode by iw 

 sudo iw  [INTERFACE]  interface add  [NEW_INTERFACE]  type managed
i.e,
 sudo iw wlan0 interface add wlan0manNG type managed
sudo iw wlan0 interface add wlan0manNG type managed


③. How to Delete wireless interface in Linux?

sudo iw [INTERFACE] del
i.e,
sudo iw wlan0manNG del
sudo iw wlan0manNG del



⚪How to Disable monitor mode in Linux?

①. Using airmon-ng

 airmon-ng stop [INTERFACE]
 airmon-ng check kill
Note: Don't forget to replace [INTERFACE] with your monitor mode interface name🙂

i.e,
 airmon-ng stop wlan0mon
 airmon-ng check kill
airmon-ng stop wlan0mon



How to Restart Network Manager in Linux?

If your network manager doesn't start automatically then restart your network manager manually.

For Debian based (Ubuntu, Kali, Parrot, PoP!_OS, Mx Linux, Zorin OS, Sparky Linux etc...)
  sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

For Arch based (Manjaro, ArcoLinux, EndeavourOS, Artix, Archlabs, Archman, etc...)
  sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service  

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