For this guide I will be using the Alfa AWUS036ACS USB Wi-fi Adapter as it is relatively inexpensive and discrete compared to similar devices. Unfortunately this device is not supported out-of-the-box in Linux (tested Debian 12 & Kali 2024.2) so we will first have to install drivers before we can use the device.
Alfa provides documentation for compiling and installing the appropriate drivers on Kali, Ubuntu, Debian, and Raspbian which can be found here. I have also detailed some of their documentation below along with my own experiences.
Note: If the previously mentioned link is dead at any point in the future, the Alfa AWUS036ACS is based on the RTL8811AU chipset. Drivers are chipset-specific not necessarily device-specific.
Important Repositories: aircrack-ng/rtl8812au: https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au morrownr/8821au-20210708: https://github.com/morrownr/8821au-20210708
Install:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms
Verify Installation:
find /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ -name "88XXau.ko"
Note: In my testing Kali did not find any results when running this command after installation
Install:
sudo apt update
which dkms || sudo apt install dkms
which rfkill || sudo apt install rfkill
which git || sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/morrownr/8821au-20210708.git
cd 8821au-20210708
sudo ./install-driver.sh
Verify Installation:
find /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ -name "8821au.ko"
Note: In my testing Kali did find the binaries from the installation. If the Kali install did not succeed, possibly try the Debian or Ubuntu installation on your Kali box. Not sure why these have different installation methods.
To be continued…