How to use Wi-Fi bridged adapter on Kali Linux VirtualBox

Question

I have created a Kali Linux VirtualBox and want to use my Wi-Fi card not wired connection. The standard NAT adapter gives me internet just fine, but when I change that to bridged adapter and select my Wi-Fi card "TP-LINK 802.11ac Network Adapter" with "promiscuous mode: Deny" and "Cable Connected" ticked. Kali does not change to wireless network and show me the available networks, it stays as Ethernet network with wired connection 1. The network symbol is spinning and it cannot connect to the internet.

Hopefully this is a matter of turning off Ethernet and turning on Wi-Fi but I don't know.

Answer 1

Bridging your wireless adapter to your VM does not give your VM a wireless device. Notice when you expand the "Advanced" section of the VM's adapter settings that "Adapter Type" is an option; this is the "device" which is presented to the VM.

This means that no matter which host connection you are bridging, the connection will appear to be of that "Adapter Type" to the guest. In other words, it will still appear to be an Ethernet connection to Kali.

To get WiFi to your Kali box when bridging is already set up, connect to WiFi on your host. (Note: this will connect your VM to your WiFi network, but will not result in Kali "speaking WiFi", so Aircrack-ng etc. would still not be usable.)

If the WiFi interface is a USB device plugged into your host, then you can probably pass that through to your VM.

Answer 2

in the view of the virtual machine (kali in this case), the connection is always a wired one. The VM doesn't "see" your hardware-adapter (TP-Link) but a virtual interface (AMD PCNet FAST III by default).

"bridged" networking means, that your physical networkcard is able to use promiscuous mode, that means that a single connection can be used for multiple clients with their own ip-address each. Depending on the Address the network is asking for, the request gets delivered to the host or the vm.

I cannot remember that I used bridged networking on a WiFi ever, but I assume that if the host sets up the WiFi-Connection (SSID, WPA, etc), you may connect the VM as bridged – but don't nail me on that.

As far as I understand is that you want to have your host connected via cable and kali connected via wifi, is that correct? in that case I recommend you removing all virtual network interfaces and pass throug the usb-wifi-dongle. this way the network-interface inside the vm is the real one but the host system has no access to the dongle anymore (and thus no wifi).