There are three primary reasons for this failure in a 2021 context:
: Most modern routers now ship with unique, randomized default passwords. Since these aren't found in leaked "top" lists, traditional wordlist attacks are increasingly hitting a wall. Why 2021 Was a Turning Point
Let me know how you'd like to .
You may have captured a PMKID (from an AP with roaming enabled) rather than a full handshake. Tools like hashcat can crack PMKIDs differently – but aircrack-ng with a wordlist won’t handle them properly without conversion.
When a tool like Wifite captures a WPA four-way handshake, it saves the transaction as a packet capture file (typically .cap or .pcapng ). The tool then attempts an offline dictionary attack by hashing every text string in a provided file and comparing it against the mathematical challenge-response of the captured handshake.
Modern password cracking isn't just about simple dictionary attacks.