Why does Parrot broadcast an SSID at boot?

#1

Why is Parrot running hostapd-wpe and broadcasting hostapd-wpe as an SSID on wlan0 immediately after boot? It’s a fresh install and I haven’t launched any security tools yet. I simply installed Parrot Mate and ran updates. Then I walked away to eat lunch and check something on another computer. That’s when I noticed a new wireless access point broadcasting very strongly. I used a signal meter to trace it and was surprised to find that it was my laptop broadcasting. Also confirmed hostapd-wpe is running with htop. Is this normal behavior for Parrot when no security tools are in use? I verified the hash to make sure I didn’t receive a compromised iso.

What version of Parrot are you running? (include version (e.g. 4.6), edition(e.g. Home//KDE/OVA, etc.), and architecture (currently we only support amd64)

Latest version on your website

What method did you use to install Parrot? (Debian Standard / Debian GTK / parrot-experimental)

ISO image burned to USB

Configured to multiboot with other systems? (yes / no)

Yes, Mint, Manjaro & Parrot

If there are any similar issues or solutions, link to them below:

If there are any error messages or relevant logs, post them below:

2 Likes
#2

This isnt happening for me at all, are you certain it is defo from Parrot machine? What kind of signal meter did you use?
Also what version are you using? you stated “latest version” but to be certain it would help if you could clarify what version you have downloaded and where from ie mirror 1, 2 etc.

#3

If you read my original post, you will see that I confirmed it with htop. hostapd-wpe is a running process. I also rebooted several times to verify and it does start up every time.

This doesn’t make sense for it to be running at boot since the only use for it is as an attack vector impersonating a wireless access point. The worst part is that it advertises to anyone nearby, that someone is running a nefarious application. I’m just really glad I wasn’t sitting in a coffee shop or anywhere else public at the time.

It doesn’t really matter to me any longer however since the lack of any response from any member of the distribution team or really any knowledgeable input from anyone over numerous platforms has prompted me to skip this once promising distribution and go back to Kali where there is at least a solid support network.

#4

Do you have any thing to show this such as a screen grab or something as this cannot be reproduced using the version of Parrot you stated?
I suspect that there was a settings change in the startup of a script during an initial update after the install of the system, regardless please enjoy your Kali

1 Like
#5

upon update of a clean 4.7 install a fully functional hostapd-wpe service loads
’ $ps aux |grep host
root 613 0.0 0.2 10236 6516 ? Ss 10:43 0:00 /usr/sbin/hostapd-wpe /etc/hostapd-wpe/hostapd-wpe.conf
zero 1246 0.0 0.0 6136 904 pts/1 S+ 10:45 0:00 grep --color=auto host’

edit the conf file to your specifications if you want it to run or simply
“sudo chmod -x /usr/sbin/hostapd-wpe” and reboot if you don’t want it to run at startup…
‘$ps aux |grep host
zero 1216 0.0 0.0 6136 840 pts/1 S+ 10:56 0:00 grep --color=auto host’