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When I run iw phy I see the list of ciphers my interface supports,

Supported Ciphers:
    * WEP40 (00-0f-ac:1)
    * WEP104 (00-0f-ac:5)
    * TKIP (00-0f-ac:2)
    * CCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:4)
    * GCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:8)
    * GCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:9)
    * CMAC (00-0f-ac:6)
    * GMAC-128 (00-0f-ac:11)
    * GMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:12)

How do I find what cipher the card is using on the currently connected network?

Evan Carroll
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1 Answers1

3

Try to run wpa_cli (or sudo wpa_cli). Then type:

scan
scan_result

scan_result should print what kind of encryption wifi networks in your vicinity use. You know to which one you are connected, so that is your used encryption method.

You can know something even before that as you know that CCMP and GCMP are used in WPA2-AES, etc.

scan_result will also show you the cipher of the currently connected network, hiding other networks you're not connected to

$ sudo wpa_cli scan_result
Selected interface 'wlp0s20f3'
bssid / frequency / signal level / flags / ssid
b2:75:1c:22:d9:c0   5180    -32 [WPA2-PSK-CCMP][ESS][UTF-8] EvanCarroll_5G

You can also try this:

iwlist <adapter> scan

In my case

iwlist wlp1s0 scan
Evan Carroll
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nobody
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  • Is there no way to find the cipher of the currently connected network that the card is using, whatever it may be without manually resolving it to the network list? – Evan Carroll Nov 12 '20 at 07:21
  • I don't know. This is the only method I am aware of, but that does not mean there is no other method that works the way you want. – nobody Nov 12 '20 at 07:45
  • @EvanCarroll Have you seen an update in the answer? Did you try `iwlist scan`? – nobody Nov 14 '20 at 12:38
  • `wpa_cli scan_result` actually does what I want. – Evan Carroll Nov 14 '20 at 16:20