In the world of mobile pentesting and wireless network auditing, the tool Reaver occupies a special place. This is a powerful utility designed to attack the WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) protocol, which was originally created to simplify connecting devices to the router, but turned out to be vulnerable. Using Reaver on the platform Android allows you to turn your smartphone into a portable station for testing network security right “in the field”, without the need to carry a bulky laptop with you.

However, the process of operating this software on a mobile OS is associated with a number of technical difficulties. Unlike desktop Linux distributions, such as Kali Linux or Parrot OS, the standard smartphone firmware does not support the Wi-Fi adapter monitoring mode required for operation. Reaver. Therefore, simply downloading the APK file will not lead to the desired result. You will need a deep understanding of the system architecture and the right set of tools.

This article is a comprehensive guide on how to run and configure Reaver on a device with Android. We will analyze hardware requirements, installation methods through terminal emulators, and also describe in detail the command syntax for conducting an effective security audit.

Technical requirements and equipment preparation

Before you start installing the software, you need to make sure that your smartphone meets the minimum technical requirements. The most critical factor is the presence of root access (superuser). Without full access to the system core, it is impossible to switch the wireless module to the required operating mode. Regular applications from Google Play do not have such privileges.

The second, no less important aspect is whether your Wi-Fi chip supports the mode Monitor Mode and packet injection. Most built-in modules in modern smartphones (especially flagships of recent years) have closed drivers that block these functions at the kernel level. In this case, using the built-in adapter is impossible.

⚠️ Attention: An attempt to (forcibly) change the drivers of the built-in Wi-Fi module may lead to the device being “bricked” or voiding the warranty. If your chip does not support monitoring out of the box, the only working solution is to use an external adapter.

For successful operation, you will need an external USB Wi-Fi adapter with a chipset compatible with Linux drivers. The most popular and stable are chips from Atheros (AR9271 series) and Ralink (RT3070). The connection is made via a cable OTG (On-The-Go), which allows the smartphone to work with peripheral USB devices.

  • 📱 A smartphone with an unlocked bootloader and obtained root access (Magisk or SuperSU).
  • 📡 External USB Wi-Fi adapter with Monitor Mode support (for example, TP-Link TL-WN722N v1).
  • 🔌 High-quality OTG cable with support for data transfer, not just charging.
  • 💾 Minimum 2 GB of free RAM for stable operation of the terminal emulator.
📊 What experience do you have? with a Linux terminal?
Complete beginner, seeing it for the first time
I know basic commands
Confident user
System administrator

Installing the runtime environment on Android

Since Reaver is a console utility written for Linux, it will require environment emulation to run it on Android. Today, the most effective and lightweight solution is the application Termux. This is a terminal emulator that provides a full-fledged Linux environment without the need to emulate the entire kernel, which provides high performance.

Download Termux recommended exclusively from the repository F-Droid. The version available on the Google Play Store is often out of date and does not receive security updates, which can lead to dependency conflicts when installing packages. After installing the application, run it and update the repository lists.

To install the application itself Reaver you need to run the package installation command. In some cases, the standard package may be missing or incomplete, so installation via pkg or aptis often used. If the package is not available in the official Termux repositories, you will have to compile it from source code, which requires installing a compiler clang and libraries libpcap.

pkg update && pkg upgrade

pkg install root-repo


pkg install reaver

If automatic installation is not possible, you will have to download the sources from GitHub and compile them manually. This process is more labor-intensive and requires knowledge of working with compilers on Linux. Successful installation is confirmed by entering the command reaver, which should display help on using the utility.

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Before installing heavy packages in Termux, make sure that the phone is connected to a charger. The process of compiling or downloading dependencies can significantly drain the battery and cause processor throttling.

Setting up an external adapter and monitoring mode

By connecting an external Wi-Fi adapter via an OTG cable, the Android system should recognize it. However, to work Reaver it is not enough to just see the network; the interface must be switched to monitoring mode. To manage the wireless interface in Linux (and Termux), a utility is used aircrack-ng, in particular the command airmon-ng.

First you need to identify the name of your wireless interface. Usually the built-in module is called wlan0, and the external USB adapter can be defined as wlan1 or wlX. Use the command ifconfig or ip link to view the list of active interfaces. Make sure that the external adapter appears in the list.

Next comes a critical step - killing processes that may interfere with the adapter. Android connection managers often try to automatically manage a new device by taking over control. It is necessary to stop these processes before enabling the monitoring mode.

airmon-ng check kill

After clearing the processes, activate the monitoring mode on the desired interface. The command will create a new virtual interface, usually with a suffix mon (for example, wlan1mon). It will work with this interface Reaver.

airmon-ng start wlan1
What to do if the interface does not appear?

If after executing the airmon-ng start command the interface does not appear or generates an error, check your access rights. Make sure you are running as superuser by entering the 'su' command at the start of your Termux session. It is also possible that your adapter driver is not supported by the Android kernel.

Command syntax and launching a WPS attack

When the interface is switched to monitoring mode, you can begin to use it directly. Reaver. The main task of the utility is to search for WPS PIN codes to gain access to the network. The command syntax is quite flexible and allows you to configure the attack speed, delay times and filters.

The basic command to launch an attack requires specifying the interface (-i) and the BSSID of the target access point (-b). BSSID is the MAC address of the router, which can be found out in advance using Wi-Fi scanners or command airodump-ng. Launching without additional flags will begin standard search.

reaver -i wlan1mon -b 00:11:22:33:44:55 -vv

Flag -vv enables very verbose output, which is extremely useful for tracking progress and diagnosing errors in real time. You will see every request sent and response from the access point. This helps you understand whether the router is blocking attacks or accepting them.

Advanced settings can be used to increase efficiency and bypass simple protections. For example, the flag --delay adds a delay between attempts so as not to trigger brute force protection mechanisms. Flag --fail-wait increases the pause after unsuccessful attempts.

  • 🚀 -c [channel]: Fixation on a specific channel so as not to waste time on frequency jumps.
  • ⏱️ --delay [sec]: Setting the delay between PIN code requests (recommended 1-5 sec).
  • 🛡️ --ignore-fcs: Ignoring frame checksum errors, useful when the signal is poor.
  • 🔄 -N: Ignoring NACK packets from the access point, helps with aggressive filters.
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The success of the attack directly depends on the strength signal. If the signal level is below -70 dBm, the process may take hours or fail. Always try to be in direct line of sight from the router.

Analysis of results and interpretation of responses

During the work process Reaver displays many status messages that you need to be able to interpret correctly. Understanding these messages allows an attack strategy or a conclusion about the impossibility of hacking this particular access point.

The most desired message is WPS lockout in combination with successful PIN code recovery. However, most often you will encounter blocked messages. Modern routers are equipped with security mechanisms that temporarily block the WPS function after several unsuccessful attempts to enter the PIN code.

If you see a message WARNING: Detected AP rate limiting, this means that the access point has enabled protection. In this case, the use of a delay flag becomes mandatory. If the router completely disables WPS after the first series of failures, an attack using the classic method becomes impossible without waiting for the timer to reset (which can last from an hour to a day).

Message in the terminal Value Recommended action
Received M1 message Successful handshake, the router responded Continue the attack, everything is working correctly
No response from AP The router ignores requests Check the signal strength, change the channel or strengthen the antenna
AP rate limiting detected Protection against brute force Increase the delay (--delay) or pause the attack for an hour
WPS lockout The WPS function is blocked forever/for a long time Stop the attack on this network, the method will not work

⚠️ Attention: Some routers emulate a successful response to any PIN code, but at the end of the attack they report an incorrect code. This is a software trap that makes Reaver work in vain for many hours. If progress is stuck at 90% and does not move for hours, most likely you are faced with such protection.

Typical errors and methods for eliminating them

Working with network utilities in a mobile environment is often accompanied by specific errors. One of the most common problems is error ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed. It usually indicates that the interface was not found or does not have permission to perform the operation. Check the interface name and make sure you are running Termux as superuser.

Another common problem is process stuckness. If Reaver stops responding but does not display an error, the adapter driver may have overheated or there is a failure in the USB stack. Try physically reconnecting the adapter and restarting the network service with the command ifconfig wlan1mon down and then up.

Also worth mentioning is the problem with the drivers mac80211. Not all drivers correctly process packets in monitoring mode on ARM architecture. If you constantly receive deencapsulation errors, it is possible that your adapter is simply incompatible with the current version of the Android kernel.

☑️ Diagnosing problems with Reaver

Done: 0 / 5

Using the tool Reaver and similar utilities for security auditing is in a legal gray area that is highly dependent on the laws of your country. The tool itself is legal open source software. However, using it to access other people's networks without the owner's permission is illegal.

Never use this knowledge to hack the networks of neighbors, cafes or organizations unless you have written permission to conduct Penetration Testing. Violation of privacy and unauthorized access to computer information entail serious criminal penalties.

The only ethical use Reaver of Android is to test the security of your own home network or a client's network as part of a contract. If you discover a vulnerability in your router, immediately disable the WPS function in the device settings and change the password to a complex one that uses an encryption standard WPA2/WPA3.

Can I use Reaver without root access?

No, this is technically impossible. Wi-Fi monitoring mode requires direct access to the device driver at a low kernel level. Standard Android applications run in an isolated environment (sandbox) and do not have privileges to change the operating mode of the network interface.

Is Reaver suitable for hacking WPA2 without WPS?

No. Reaver is designed solely to attack the WPS protocol vulnerability. To attack a regular WPA2 handshake (4-way handshake), other tools are used, such as aircrack-ng in conjunction with password dictionaries, which require a completely different approach and computing resources.

Why does the attack stop at 34% or 68%?

The WPS protocol is divided into two parts PIN code verification. If the router reports that the first part is correct, but the second is not, progress will reach the middle. Frequent stops at these stages indicate that the router is adjusting the responses or has turned on protection, resetting the session after a certain number of attempts.

Which phone is best suited for these tasks?

Older models of smartphones on Qualcomm or MediaTek chipsets are best suited, for which there are custom kernels with support for packet injection. built-in Wi-Fi. However, for a guaranteed result on any phone, it is more reliable to use an external USB adapter with an Atheros AR9271 chip.