AR9170 wifi monitoring detects almost no data packets

[Coldfinger]

hey,
when using airodump-ng to monitor packets I almost see no packet transfer with my usb cards in monitor mode.
I have 2 internal wifi and 2 external atheros usb wifi cards to test.

airodump -c 13 wlanX

Card	Beacons	#Data
internal Broadcom	1000	7159 (ok)
internal Intel Wireless-N	1000	7443 (ok)
USB TP-Link TL-WN821N V1 (AR9170)	1510	7 (bad)
USB TP-Link TL-WN821N V2 (AR9170)	1574	8 (bad)

However airodump detects lost packets between AP and Client of the AR9170 cards (the amount isn't equal to the broadcom's detected loss amount).

What I've tested so far:
- Tested in: Kali 1.1 (problem), Kali 2.0 (problem), Backtrack 5 R3 (everything works as it should)
- wps handshake detecting: Kali - only detected by broadcom, Backtrack - all 3 cards detect handshake
- Carl9170 drivers/firmware: Kali - 1.9.7/1.9.6, Backtrack - 1.9.4/1.9.4
- Aircrack versions: Kali - 1.2, Backtrack - 1.1
- Copied Aircrack from Backtrack to Kali: Same problem
- Copied Carl9170 firmware (not the driver) from Backtrack to Kali: Same problem
- Captured .cap file: almost empty with AR9170 cards
- Occurs on each channel or AP
- dmesg sometimes (less than once every 100 seconds) outputs for AR9170: invalid plcp cck rate (0). or frame tail is clipped.
- no distance problems (1m away, 4m away, 10m away)
- tested on two notebooks

I'm not sure if this is a aircrack problem... any help would be good. Perhaps someone had the same problems.

[grid]

You can check the aircrack forums for confirmation, but the latest version of aircrack (1.2 RC 3) has several bug fixes in it.

I'd try updating Kali, and see if it resolves your problem. Have you done an injection test with aireplay-ng?

[Coldfinger]

Ok some more tests:
- Everything works in BT5R3: monitoring, getting data packets, handshakes, injection out of the box
- I found out that the missing data packets problem is not just Kali related. I have the same problem in Ubuntu 15 for example.
- Injection test not successful in Kali (perhaps due to that problem...)
- Kali updates don't solve the problem

So I think I'll switch over to aircrack forums. Somehow it seems like not many people are using AR9170 chipset at all. I suspect that this is something new kernel/module/driver-based problem.

[grid]

The only other thing I can think of is to check the output of dmesg or /var/log for anything weird.

[spkn]

hi, im new to this distro, i have a similar problem, i use tl-821n v2. I can not get any client when i run airodump-ng, and im near my modem, and tried connecting, and disconecting my device with the correct password several times, i tought this model didnt support injection, but i see that the problem could be the drivers.

[freeroute]

Hello,

I have the same problem too. No data packets....

05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S) 802.11abg] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. XR2 802.11g Wireless Mini PCI Adapter
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 18
Memory at febf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ath5k
Kernel modules: ath5k

[Gh0sT.sh]

Please post the Error Log !!!
of the non working devices
hardware logs / Software mem dumps / error logs etc

[freeroute]

dmesg:
10.257774] ath5k: phy0: Atheros AR5414 chip found (MAC: 0xa5, PHY: 0x61)
[ 10.261431] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
[ 10.261436] cfg80211: DFS Master region: FCC
[ 10.261438] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
[ 10.261441] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 3000 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.261444] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 1700 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.261447] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[ 10.261450] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[ 10.261452] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 3000 mBm), (N/A)

root@freeroute:~# lspci -v
05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S) 802.11abg] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. XR2 802.11g Wireless Mini PCI Adapter
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 18
Memory at febf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ath5k
Kernel modules: ath5k

root@freeroute:~# iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=30 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

root@freeroute:~# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
root@freeroute:~# airmon-ng --debug start wlan0


/bin/sh -> /bin/dash

SHELL is GNU bash, version 4.3.42(1)-release (i586-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Kali
Description: Kali GNU/Linux Rolling
Release: kali-rolling
Codename: kali-rolling

Linux freeroute 4.3.0-kali1-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 4.3.5-1kali1 (2016-02-11) i686 GNU/Linux

K indicates driver is from 4.3.0-kali1-686-pae
V indicates driver comes directly from the vendor, almost certainly a bad thing
S indicates driver comes from the staging tree, these drivers are meant for reference not actual use, BEWARE
? indicates we do not know where the driver comes from... report this


X[PHY]Interface Driver[Stack]-FirmwareRev Chipset Extended Info

getStack mac80211
getdriver() ath5k
getchipset() Qualcomm Atheros AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S) 802.11abg] (rev 01)
BUS = pci
BUSINFO =
DEVICEID = 0x168c:0x001b
getFrom() K
getFirmware N/A
K[phy0]wlan0 ath5k[mac80211]-N/A Qualcomm Atheros AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S) 802.11abg] (rev 01)

(mac80211 monitor mode vif enabled for [phy0]wlan0 on [phy0]wlan0mon)
(mac80211 station mode vif disabled for [phy0]wlan0)



r

[freeroute]

And airodump-ng stat:

root@freeroute:~# airodump-ng wlan0mon
CH 3 ][ Elapsed: 2 mins ][ 2016-02-25 17:18

BSSID PWR Beacons #Data, #/s CH MB ENC CIPHER AUTH ESSID

4C:5E:0C0:51:75 -53 155 0 0 1 54e. WPA2 CCMP PSK freeroute
4E:5E:0C0:51:75 -54 154 0 0 1 54e. WPA2 CCMP PSK freeroute_VAP
10:FE:ED:CD:8E:72 -71 429 0 0 6 54e. WPA2 CCMP PSK lamihalynet
78:54:2E:53:1D:2E -73 141 0 0 11 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK aletta
C0:4A:00:4A:67:58 -84 240 0 0 4 54e. WPA2 CCMP PSK TP-LINK_4A6758
64:66:B3:FB:F2:C6 -92 85 0 0 1 54e. WPA2 CCMP PSK Nitta0311
10:FE:ED:85:86:E2 -96 26 0 0 1 54e. WEP WEP TP-LINK-001
90:17:AC:E9:17:9C -97 24 0 0 11 54e WPA2 CCMP PSK T-home

BSSID STATION PWR Rate Lost Frames Probe

(not associated) 98:3B:16:A8:FA:9D -87 0 - 1 33 74 lamihalynet
(not associated) C4:62:EA:83:1E:E3 -81 0 - 1 0 4
(not associated) 24:00:BA:E7:34:1D -95 0 - 1 0 1 virag
(not associated) C0:9F:42:8D:63:62 -66 0 - 1 0 1
(not associated) 5C:F8:A1:AA:9D:CD -93 0 - 1 0 7 TP-LINK_77BADA

[freeroute]

The full log here: http://pastebin.com/cC0ZDtCT

[SVvtg]

I've found the exact same issue. I test my internal Intel card and see 1000's of data packets on an OPN network. With my Atheros cards, (ALPHA, TP-LINK, etc...) I see almost no data. This wasn't the case in previous builds, but I can't seem to get quality data capture on Kali 2.0, Kali 2016.1. Something has gone wrong in the drivers for Atheros IMO. Have any of you found a resolution? Thanks.