A penetration tester targets a WPA2-PSK wireless network. The tester captures the handshake and wants to speed up cracking the pre-shared key. Which approach is most effective?
A.
Conduct a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack on the router's login page
B.
Use a brute-force attack to crack the pre-shared key manually
C.
Use a dictionary attack with a large wordlist to crack the WPA2 key
D.
Perform a SQL injection attack to bypass the WPA2 authentication
CEH v13 explains that WPA2-PSK security relies on the strength of the pre-shared key. Once the 4-way handshake is captured, the attacker must attempt offline cracking. CEH emphasizes that the dictionary attack is the most efficient and commonly used cracking method because it tests structured wordlists, human-derived passwords, and hybrid permutations, dramatically reducing time compared to full brute force. Brute forcing (Option B) is computationally heavy and often impractical unless the password is extremely short. XSS (Option A) and SQL injection (Option D) have no relevance to WPA2 authentication, which occurs at the wireless protocol level, not the router’s web interface. The dictionary attack is highlighted in CEH as the principal technique used with tools like aircrack-ng, hashcat, and pyrit, allowing rapid key testing using optimized GPU or CPU cracking. Thus, Option C is the most effective and CEH-aligned method.
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