# IEEE 802.11

> Understand the 802.11 standard, its bands and channels, and the management, control, and data frame types that wireless attacks abuse.

- **URL:** https://hackindex.io/learn/oswp-pen-210-study-path/ieee-802-11
- **Certification:** [OSWP (PEN-210) Study Path](https://hackindex.io/learn/oswp-pen-210-study-path.md)
- **Estimated study hours:** 1
- **Published:** 2026-09-27
- **Updated:** 2026-09-27

IEEE 802.11 is the standard behind Wi-Fi. Understanding it is the foundation for every wireless attack: how devices find and join networks, what the different frame types do, and where the exploitable weaknesses live. PEN-210 covers the standard and its amendments (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax), the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands and their channels, and the three frame classes: management (beacons, probes, authentication, association), control (RTS/CTS, ACK), and data. Most attacks abuse the fact that management and control frames are unauthenticated by default.

## 802.11 Frame Analysis

The fastest way to internalize the standard is to watch it on the wire. Capturing in monitor mode and inspecting frames in Wireshark and tshark shows beacons advertising an AP's capabilities, probe requests leaking client preferred-network lists, the four-way handshake, and deauthentication frames. Display filters isolate each frame type, and knowing which frames carry which fields tells you what you can capture, spoof, or inject in later modules.

## Study material

- [802.11 Frame Analysis with Wireshark and tshark](https://hackindex.io/platforms/wireless/reconnaissance/80211-frame-analysis-with-wireshark-and-tshark.md) (read, core)