Monitor mode

Monitor mode or monitor mode refers to a particular mode of operation of a wireless adapter in which all received network frames to the operating system to be forwarded and the applications.

In the monitor mode, in contrast to the promiscuous mode, all frames received are forwarded, not just those of the network to which the client is currently connected. One advantage is that not a single frame has to be sent by the own network card and therefore the interception of the frames is not recognizable in any log files. In addition, no authentication on the network is necessary. If the frame packets are encrypted, for example with WEP , they can be recorded and later decrypted.

Some network card drivers skip in monitor mode checking the checksum of the cyclical redundancy check ( cyclic redundancy check ) of the frame, which leads to erroneous frames can be forwarded. The integrity of the data is therefore not guaranteed in monitor mode.

In addition, not all drivers offer the option of setting the card to monitor mode or do not allow packets to be sent in monitor mode.

See also : Promiscuous Mode