airodump-ng-oui-update

airodump-ng-oui-update [options]

Example usage:
airodump-ng-oui-update
airodump-ng-oui-update --oui-url https://custom.url/oui.txt

-h, --help
    Displays the help message and exits.

--oui-url <url>
    Specifies a custom URL from which to download the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) file, overriding the default IEEE source.

--mac-url <url>
    Specifies a custom URL from which to download the IAB (Individual Address Block) file, overriding the default IEEE source.

The airodump-ng-oui-update command is an essential utility within the Aircrack-ng suite, designed to maintain the accuracy and usefulness of airodump-ng's output. When airodump-ng captures wireless traffic, it displays MAC addresses of detected devices. To provide more meaningful information, it attempts to resolve the first 3 bytes (the Organizationally Unique Identifier or OUI) of these MAC addresses to their respective manufacturer names.

This command automatically downloads the latest OUI and IAB (Individual Address Block) databases, typically from the IEEE website, ensuring that the manufacturer mapping used by airodump-ng is current. An up-to-date OUI file significantly enhances network analysis by allowing users to quickly identify the vendors of wireless devices, aiding in reconnaissance, troubleshooting, and security auditing.

Running this command periodically is recommended to keep your Aircrack-ng tools informed about new hardware manufacturers and assigned MAC address ranges.

An active internet connection is required for the command to successfully download the latest OUI and IAB databases. Depending on your system's configuration and the default installation path of Aircrack-ng, you may need root or sudo privileges to write the updated files to their designated system directories (e.g., /usr/local/etc/aircrack-ng/ or /etc/aircrack-ng/).

By default, airodump-ng-oui-update attempts to save the updated oui.txt and mac.txt files in the Aircrack-ng configuration directory, typically located at /usr/local/etc/aircrack-ng/ or /etc/aircrack-ng/. These paths are crucial for airodump-ng to correctly identify manufacturer information.

The OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) is the first 24 bits (3 bytes) of a MAC address, globally administered by the IEEE. It uniquely identifies the organization that manufactured the hardware. IABs (Individual Address Blocks) are similar but assigned to organizations for smaller blocks of MAC addresses. Keeping these databases current allows airodump-ng to display human-readable manufacturer names instead of just raw MAC addresses, greatly enhancing the clarity of network scans.

The airodump-ng-oui-update utility is an integral part of the Aircrack-ng suite, which originated from the earlier Aircrack project. As wireless technologies evolved and new hardware manufacturers emerged, the necessity for an updated OUI database became paramount for accurate network analysis. This command was developed to automate the process of keeping airodump-ng's MAC address manufacturer lookup current, ensuring its continued effectiveness in wireless security auditing and reconnaissance since the early 2000s.

airodump-ng(8), aircrack-ng(1)