CEH Practice Question: Advanced Topics: Wireless, Cloud, IoT, Cryptography
During a penetration test, you capture the following 4-way handshake using airodump-ng. Which tool would you use to attempt a dictionary attack to recover the WPA2 passphrase?
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 is the standard tool for cracking WPA/WPA2 handshakes using dictionary attacks.
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 dictionary attacks on handshakes.
- ✓
Aircrack-ng
Why this is correct
Aircrack-ng can perform dictionary attacks on captured 4-way handshakes.
- ✗
Kismet
Why it's wrong here
Kismet is a wireless network detector and sniffer, not a cracking tool.
- ✗
John the Ripper
Why it's wrong here
John the Ripper is a password cracker but not specifically used for WPA2 handshakes; aircrack-ng is the primary tool.
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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.