Tools

Tool Coverage Matrix

Tool	PSK	EAP	WEP	Purpose
hcxpcapngtool	Yes	Yes	No	Extract hashes from pcap/pcapng/gzip captures
wpawolf	Yes	No	No	Extract PSK/FT-PSK hashes (collect-then-pair, no size gate, cross-file pairing)
hashcat	Yes	Yes	No	GPU-accelerated offline password cracking
aircrack-ng	Yes	No	Yes	Capture, injection, and WEP/WPA key recovery
hostapd-mana	No	Yes	No	Rogue AP for EAP credential capture
hcxdumptool	Yes	No	No	Active PMKID/EAPOL capture
Wireshark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Packet analysis and manual field extraction

Capture, Extract, Crack Pipeline

The general workflow follows three stages:

1. Capture: Acquire raw 802.11 frames containing authentication exchanges.
2. Extract: Parse captures into hash formats suitable for cracking tools.
3. Crack: Run extracted hashes through hashcat or aircrack-ng.

flowchart LR
    subgraph Capture
        A[hcxdumptool] --> C[pcapng]
        B[airodump-ng] --> D[pcap]
        E[hostapd-mana] --> F[EAP log]
    end
    subgraph Extract
        C --> G[hcxpcapngtool / wpawolf]
        D --> G
        F --> H[manual parsing]
    end
    subgraph Crack
        G --> I[hashcat]
        H --> I
        D --> J[aircrack-ng]
    end