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As you may already know, Wi-Fi is used to connect to multiple networks at different places, your machine definitely has a way to store the Wi-Fi password somewhere so the next time you connect, you don't have to re-type it again.
In this tutorial, you will learn how you can make a quick Python script to extract saved Wi-Fi passwords in either Windows or Linux machines.
We won't need any third-party library to be installed, as we'll be using interacting with netsh in Windows, and the NetworkManager folder in Linux. Importing the libraries:
import subprocess
import os
import re
from collections import namedtuple
import configparserGet: Build 24 Ethical Hacking Scripts & Tools with Python Book
Getting Wi-Fi Passwords on Windows
On Windows, to get all the Wi-Fi names (ssids), we use the netsh wlan show profiles command, below function uses subprocess to call that command and parses it into Python:
def get_windows_saved_ssids():
"""Returns a list of saved SSIDs in a Windows machine using netsh command"""
# get all saved profiles in the PC
output = subprocess.check_output("netsh wlan show profiles").decode()
ssids = []
profiles = re.findall(r"All User Profile\s(.*)", output)
for profile in profiles:
# for each SSID, remove spaces and colon
ssid = profile.strip().strip(":").strip()
# add to the list
ssids.append(ssid)
return ssidsWe're using regular expressions to find the network profiles. Next, we can use show profile [ssid] key=clear in order to get the password of that network:
def get_windows_saved_wifi_passwords(verbose=1):
"""Extracts saved Wi-Fi passwords saved in a Windows machine, this function extracts data using netsh
command in Windows
Args:
verbose (int, optional): whether to print saved profiles real-time. Defaults to 1.
Returns:
[list]: list of extracted profiles, a profile has the fields ["ssid", "ciphers", "key"]
"""
ssids = get_windows_saved_ssids()
Profile = namedtuple("Profile", ["ssid", "ciphers", "key"])
profiles = []
for ssid in ssids:
ssid_details = subprocess.check_output(f"""netsh wlan show profile "{ssid}" key=clear""").decode()
# get the ciphers
ciphers = re.findall(r"Cipher\s(.*)", ssid_details)
# clear spaces and colon
ciphers = "/".join([c.strip().strip(":").strip() for c in ciphers])
# get the Wi-Fi password
key = re.findall(r"Key Content\s(.*)", ssid_details)
# clear spaces and colon
try:
key = key[0].strip().strip(":").strip()
except IndexError:
key = "None"
profile = Profile(ssid=ssid, ciphers=ciphers, key=key)
if verbose >= 1:
print_windows_profile(profile)
profiles.append(profile)
return profiles
def print_windows_profile(profile):
"""Prints a single profile on Windows"""
print(f"{profile.ssid:25}{profile.ciphers:15}{profile.key:50}")First, we call our get_windows_saved_ssids() to get all the SSIDs we connected to before, we then initialize our namedtuple to include ssid, ciphers and the key. We call the show profile [ssid] key=clear for each SSID extracted, we parse the ciphers and the key (password), and print it with the simple print_windows_profile() function.
Let's call this function now:
def print_windows_profiles(verbose):
"""Prints all extracted SSIDs along with Key on Windows"""
print("SSID CIPHER(S) KEY")
print("-"*50)
get_windows_saved_wifi_passwords(verbose)So print_windows_profiles() prints all SSIDs along with the cipher and key (password).
Related: Build 24 Ethical Hacking Scripts & Tools with Python Book
Getting Wi-Fi Passwords on Linux
On Linux, it's different, in the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ directory, all previously connected networks are located here as INI files, we just have to read these files and print them in a nice format:
def get_linux_saved_wifi_passwords(verbose=1):
"""Extracts saved Wi-Fi passwords saved in a Linux machine, this function extracts data in the
`/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/` directory
Args:
verbose (int, optional): whether to print saved profiles real-time. Defaults to 1.
Returns:
[list]: list of extracted profiles, a profile has the fields ["ssid", "auth-alg", "key-mgmt", "psk"]
"""
network_connections_path = "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/"
fields = ["ssid", "auth-alg", "key-mgmt", "psk"]
Profile = namedtuple("Profile", [f.replace("-", "_") for f in fields])
profiles = []
for file in os.listdir(network_connections_path):
data = { k.replace("-", "_"): None for k in fields }
config = configparser.ConfigParser()
config.read(os.path.join(network_connections_path, file))
for _, section in config.items():
for k, v in section.items():
if k in fields:
data[k.replace("-", "_")] = v
profile = Profile(**data)
if verbose >= 1:
print_linux_profile(profile)
profiles.append(profile)
return profiles
def print_linux_profile(profile):
"""Prints a single profile on Linux"""
print(f"{str(profile.ssid):25}{str(profile.auth_alg):5}{str(profile.key_mgmt):10}{str(profile.psk):50}") Related: How to Make a Password Generator in Python.
As mentioned, we're using os.listdir() on that directory to list all files, we then use configparser to read the INI file, and iterate over the items, if we find the fields we're interested in, we simply include them in our data.
There is other information, but we're sticking to the SSID, auth-alg, key-mgmt and psk (password). Next, let's call the function now:
def print_linux_profiles(verbose):
"""Prints all extracted SSIDs along with Key (PSK) on Linux"""
print("SSID AUTH KEY-MGMT PSK")
print("-"*50)
get_linux_saved_wifi_passwords(verbose)Finally, let's make a function that calls either print_linux_profiles() or print_windows_profiles() based on our OS:
def print_profiles(verbose=1):
if os.name == "nt":
print_windows_profiles(verbose)
elif os.name == "posix":
print_linux_profiles(verbose)
else:
raise NotImplemented("Code only works for either Linux or Windows")
if __name__ == "__main__":
print_profiles()Running the script:
$ python get_wifi_passwords.pyOutput on my Windows machine:
SSID CIPHER(S) KEY
--------------------------------------------------
OPPO F9 CCMP/GCMP 0120123489@
TP-Link_83BE_5G CCMP/GCMP 0xxxxxxx
Access Point CCMP/GCMP super123
HUAWEI P30 CCMP/GCMP 00055511
ACER CCMP/GCMP 20192019
HOTEL VINCCI MARILLIA CCMP 01012019
Bkvz-U01Hkkkkkzg CCMP/GCMP 00000011
nadj CCMP/GCMP burger010
Griffe T1 CCMP/GCMP 110011110111111
BIBLIO02 None None
AndroidAP CCMP/GCMP 185338019mbs
ilfes TKIP 25252516
Point CCMP/GCMP super123And this is the Linux output:
SSID AUTH KEY-MGMT PSK
--------------------------------------------------
KNDOMA open wpa-psk 5060012009690
TP-LINK_C4973F None None None
None None None None
Point open wpa-psk super123
Point None None NoneConclusion
Alright, that's it for this tutorial. I'm sure this is a piece of useful code for you to quickly get the saved Wi-Fi passwords on your machine.
Check the full code here.
In our Ethical Hacking with Python Ebook, we build 24 hacking tools from scratch using Python. Make sure to check it out here if you're interested!
Learn also: How to Extract Chrome Passwords in Python
Happy coding ♥
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