Recommended USB Wireless Cards for Kali Linux

his post lists some of the best performing, supported and recommended USB Wireless Cards for Kali Linux.

There isn’t a “best” card. There is whatever is right for YOU.

Following recommended USB Wireless cards appears to be working for Kali Linux (i.e. monitor, injection etc.)

*Note* These are not in any type of order *Note*

A common problem in pentest distro such as Kali or BackTrack Linux is when users trying to use a card which is not supported or there just isn’t a supported driver. Most of the following cards are priced below $50USD and they take care of a massive headache and saves time to troubleshoot driver issues rather than investing time to actually do something. With each update these makeshift fixes seems to break old drivers and you end up doing the whole thing again and again.

Contents [hide]

• 802.11 Recommended USB Wireless Cards for Kali Linux
• 2.4GHz
  • Rokland N3
  • Alfa AWUS036NHA
  • TP-Link WN722N
  • Linksys WUSB54GC v1
• 5GHz (& 2.4GHz)
  • Rosewill RNX-N600UBE
• Other useful links
• Question
• Conclusion
  • Cracking Wifi WPA/WPA2 passwords
  • Cracking password hashes
  • DOS/DDOS attacks
  • Metasploit related
  • SQLMap and Google Dorks
• Related

A good card will allow you to crack Wifi on the fly or at least make it easier. Some examples are:

1. Cracking WPA WPA2 with Hashcat on Kali Linux (BruteForce MASK based attack on Wifi passwords)
2. Cracking MD5, phpBB, MySQL and SHA1 passwords with Hashcat, cudaHashcat, oclHashcat on Kali Linux
3. Cracking Wifi WPA/WPA2 passwords using pyrit cowpatty on Kali Linux

This whole drama goes away when you get one of the recommended usb wireless cards. Then again, I got few different Wifi cards and I managed to make all of them work with Kali Linux including injection and monitor mode etc. It really depends on the user and type of card. This guide will possibly help someone who just got an unsupported card and/or tired of wasting time troubleshooting existing card and would rather spend some $$ to have this problem go away once and for all. This post is again adapted from none other than g0tmi1k’spost in Kali forums.

POST UPDATED: 28/03/2014 
Added Linksys WUSB54GC v1 Compact Wireless-G USB Adapter to recommended list.

2.4GHz

Rokland N3

~ http://store.rokland.com/products/th…b-for-macs-pcs

$32.97 off Rockland

• Ralink RT3070 ~ http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Rokland_n3
• 700 mW
• Detachable antenna (RP-SMA)
• IEEE 802.11b/g/n
• 150Mbps
• WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPS
• USB 2.0

Alfa AWUS036NHA

~ http://www.alfa.com.tw/products_show.php?pc=34&ps=20

$32.99 off Amazon

• Atheros AR9271 ~ http://wikidevi.com/wiki/ALFA_Network_AWUS036NHA
• ~800 mW (29dBm)
• Detachable antenna (RP-SMA)
• IEEE 802.11b/g/n
• 150Mbps
• WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPS
• USB 2.0

TP-Link WN722N

~ http://uk.tp-link.com/products/detai…TL-WN722N#spec

$15.18 off Amazon

• Atheros AR9002U ~ http://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WN722N
• 500 mW ?
• Detachable antenna (RP-SMA)
• IEEE 802.11b/g/n
• 150Mbps
• WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPS
• USB 2.0

Linksys WUSB54GC v1

~ http://support.linksys.com/en-us/support/adapters/WUSB54GC

25.00$ off Amazon

• Chipset: Ralink 2573 USB ~ https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Linksys_WUSB54GC_v1
• Driver: rt73usb
• IEEE 802.11b/g
• 150Mbps
• WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPS
• USB 2.0
• Stack: mac80211
• Injection: Yes
• See discussion here:

5GHz (& 2.4GHz)

Rosewill RNX-N600UBE

~ http://www.rosewill.com/products/182…ifications.htm

$32.66 off Amazon

• Ralink RT3572 ~ http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Rosewill_RNX-N600UBE
• 100 mW ?
• Detachable antenna (SMA)
• IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
• 300Mbps
• WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPS
• USB 2.0

Update: Taken from a comment of ‘Proper Gander’ / December 11, 2014 at 11:37 pm

I should add that the Rosewill RNX-N600UBEs they’re selling at Amazon come with Ralink 5572s now so someone looking for a plug-and-play option will be disappointed, and frustrated, and praying that someone will see this comment on a half-year old article and give them a little help.

Comment: So unless someone else can verify that Ralink RT3572 was replaced by Ralink 5572, I am marking Rosewill RNX-N600UBE incompatible.

Other useful links

• http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=install_drivers
• http://aircrack-ng.blogspot.co.uk/20…tbook-for.html

As the price will change over time and from country to country, it’s missing on purpose. Places that have been known to stock the mentioned cards:

• Amazon
• eBay
• Google Shopping
• Local PC shop
• NewEgg

If you have a different card feel free to share here which will probably help another user someday.

“No responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information.” == Double check before purchasing.

Question

Anyone managed to make a Linux supported DIY Wifi Dongle that is able to do monitor, injection? I would be very much interested on that… If you have something like that, can you send me details via Contact Us page?

Conclusion

While these are the tested adapters and comes most recommended, manufacturers always change chipsets and it is simply impossible for to me keep this list up-to-date (on top of running this site alone). I strongly suggest you read the chipset info before purchasing.

Read the comments section below for more users experience and if you have any suggestions/recommendations, let me know. I can’t promise I will add everything, but at least the next user/reader will have some useful info to read and make an informed and better decision. Comments doesn’t require registration or validity, so feel free.