Introduction to the Wifi Tool

Rationale

The Wi-Fi and how data packets are transferred between devices have been seen as a “black-box” to most audiences today. This ESP-32 microcontroller based project will help you unfold the technical layers that are abstracted away from us. This project is also a great starting point to strengthen your hardware prototyping as well as software coding skills. Most importantly, you will use it as a sandbox and adjust the hardware and software per your liking.

Overview

This prototype is a direct re-engineering to “Your Swiss Army Knife for Wireless Networks” project by Cipher (2023). The major function of the device is to monitor network traffic on the move. It monitors the Wi-Fi traffic, scans for nearby Wi-Fi APs, simulates beacon spams, and detects authentication attacks.

Goals

The goal of this project is to achieve an intermediate-level understanding of the ESP32 functionalities as well as to explore its Wi-Fi capabilities on an educational level. We will utilize the on-board antenna of the development board to accomplish the wireless connectivity, and program the microcontroller with the Arduino IDE via a micro-USB cable.

Continual Development

Both the hardware and software presented in this project are nowhere close to optimization. For example, the push-button debounce can be designed much more effectively with proper implementation of a debouncing circuit, and the entire breadboard prototype can be integrated onto a customized PCB with surface-mount components. On the other side, the code base can be migrated onto a more robust platform such as the Expressif IDF. However, these implementations will be left open to the end-user as continual development ideas. Afterall, this is merely a starting point for educational needs.