Monitor mode support

Omnia hardware Omnia HW help
1

Hello everyone,

I’m starting with my school project, that includes using router with OpenWRT as “sniffer”, probably with tcpdump or Kismet. I have to choose the right device for this task. So if I’m not wrong, I need a router that supports monitor mode and promiscuous mode. I know that some WLAN chips supports this modes and some not.

So my question is whether Turris Omnia supports these modes and could it be used for these purposes?

Thank you.

2

Monitor mode looks not to be supported:

root@turris:~# airmon-ng 

Interface	Chipset		Driver

wlan0		Unknown 	ath10k_pci - [phy0]
wlan1-1		Atheros 	ath9k - [phy1]
IEEE		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
802.11		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
Mode:Master		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
Tx-Power=19		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
dBm		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
wlan1		Atheros 	ath9k - [phy1]
wlan0-1		Unknown 	ath10k_pci - [phy0]
IEEE		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
802.11		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
Mode:Master		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
Tx-Power=23		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)
dBm		Unknown		Unknown (MONITOR MODE NOT SUPPORTED)

I would suggest to use Raspi board with:

  • 2.4GHz only: Wi-Pi USB dongle (Ralink) - this works for me
  • 5GHz look for Alfa AWUS052NH (MediaTek) which supports both 2.4 and 5GHz.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Wireless_adapters/Chipset_table

3

It’s not Turris Omnia supporting this but the kernel module for the hardware and the hardware itself.

EDIT:
I just checked out of curiosity and I can turn on monitor mode on wlan0 (which is the default 5GHz radio card supplied with Omnia) with no problems. airodump-ng runs just fine on it. Should be the same for 2.4GHz radio since they run well supported ath10k/ath9k modules.

Check with airmon-zc (upgrade of airmon-ng) start wlan0 and BAM you have wlan0mon to use with airodump-ng or whatever you want to use it with.

1 Like
4

Yes I know, and thank you for your curiosity!
I wrote to Turris support about monitor mode a they said that it is supported, but driver from Candela Technologies must be used.
I found this one: https://www.candelatech.com/ath10k.php
Which drivers do you use?

I don’t own Turris Omnia yet so I can’t check, but I’m considering pruchase if monitor mode is available on both radios.

5

I think buying Omnia just to get monitor mode support is a bit overkill but why not.

I assure you it is supported.

ath10k is the build-in kernel module or driver as you wish to call it.

You could get any cheap 30$ atheros usb wifi dongle and use it in monitor mode with any computer you want. But do whatever. I dont know your masterplan.

If this will bring you to the Turris community why not?

Solved?