CEH Practice Question: Advanced Topics: Wireless, Cloud, IoT, Cryptography
A security analyst captures a WPA2 4-way handshake using airodump-ng. Which tool would they use to perform a dictionary attack on the captured handshake to recover the PSK?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
aircrack-ng
Aircrack-ng, which is the standard tool for cracking WPA2 PSK from a captured handshake using a dictionary file.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reaver
Why it's wrong here
Reaver is used for WPS PIN attacks, not for cracking WPA2 handshakes.
- ✓
aircrack-ng
Why this is correct
aircrack-ng is designed to crack WEP and WPA/WPA2 PSK from captured handshake files.
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Hydra
Why it's wrong here
Hydra is an online password brute-forcing tool against network services, not offline WPA2 cracking.
- ✗
John the Ripper
Why it's wrong here
John the Ripper is a password cracker but not specifically for WPA2 handshakes; it's more for system password hashes.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CEH practice question is part of Courseiva's free EC-Council certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CEH exam.