To find all the saved WIFI passwords and Ethernet connection information on your Linux desktop or laptop, navigate to this directory.
/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections |
Here are the connections on my laptop.
┌─[root@parrot]─[/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections] └──╼ #ls -hula total 20K drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Aug 24 13:36 . drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4.0K Aug 24 13:29 .. -rw------- 1 root root 369 Aug 24 13:33 NetComm Wireless -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 191 Aug 24 13:30 NetworkManager-USRP -rw------- 1 root root 375 Aug 24 13:19 OPTUSVD3AEDEA |
This is what a WIFI connection file looks like. This stores the Pre Shared Key in plain text.
┌─[root@parrot]─[/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections] └──╼ #cat NetComm\ Wireless [connection] id=NetComm Wireless uuid=2a64036c-fa4f-48db-9f7e-c93fc9eb066a type=wifi permissions=user:jason:; [wifi] mac-address=F4:B7:E2:C9:1B:E3 mac-address-blacklist= mode=infrastructure ssid=NetComm Wireless [wifi-security] auth-alg=open key-mgmt=wpa-psk psk=a1b2c3d4e5 [ipv4] dns-search= method=auto [ipv6] addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy dns-search= method=auto |
So this is how to recover a WIFI password if you have forgotten it. A very useful Linux tip. Recovering passwords in Android is similar. The passwords on an Android phone are stored in the wpa_supplicant.conf file in the /data/misc/wifi directory, but this is not accessible unless you are using a rooted phone. Linux is easy though, the files are not accessible unless you are using a root prompt or sudo.
┌─[jason@parrot]─[~] └──╼ $cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/NetComm\ Wireless cat: '/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/NetComm Wireless': Permission denied |
So, this is relatively secure. This is what the Ethernet connection configuration looks like.
┌─[✗]─[root@parrot]─[/home/jason] └──╼ #cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/NetworkManager-USRP [802-3-ethernet] duplex=full [connection] id=USRP uuid=f6a7696d-4958-48f4-b1eb-c2ab9de0a838 type=802-3-ethernet [ipv6] method=auto [ipv4] method=manual addresses1=192.168.10.1;24;0.0.0.0; |
Here is how to get the passwords on Windows 7 or 8.1.
https://superuser.com/questions/424624/is-the-wifi-password-stored-somewhere-in-windows-7.