Which tool is used to detect and analyze wireless network traffic?

• A. Nmap
• B. Metasploit
• C. Wireshark
• D. Kismet

Answer: (D)

Detecting and analyzing wireless network traffic relies on a tool that can passively listen to the airwaves, discover access points and clients, and capture the traffic for inspection. Kismet is built for this purpose as a wireless detector, sniffer, and IDS. It passively monitors 802.11 traffic, collects beacons, probes, associations, and other frames, can detect hidden networks, and shows channel usage and signal strength. It also supports multiple capture drivers and can log data for later analysis, making it ideal for wireless reconnaissance and traffic analysis in practice.

Nmap focuses on host discovery and service enumeration, not on wireless traffic sniffing. Metasploit is an exploitation framework, not a traffic analysis tool. Wireshark analyzes captured packets (including wireless frames when captured in monitor mode) but is not itself a detector of wireless networks; it complements sniffing but doesn’t provide the same passive discovery and mapping capabilities as Kismet.