The goal of Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is to automate the creation of a secure wireless network. The protocol removes the need for users to understand what a SSID is or the difference between WEP, WPA, and WPA2 and their associated ciphers. Essentially, the protocol automatically creates the network blocks specified by the wpa_supplicant's configuration file. As such, the user typically only needs to run the WPS protocol once for each AP. In WPS's simplest topology, there are two participants: the registrar and the enrollee. The registrar has the authority to issue and revoke credentials on the network. Typically, but not always, this is the access point. The enrollee, on the other hand, is the device seeking to join the wireless network. The purpose of the WPS patch is to add the enrollee function to the 0.5.x version of the wpa_supplicant. WPS Methods Before you can configure the supplicant, it is helpful to understand the two supported configuration methods: Push Button Control (PBC) and PIN. Both methods accomplish the same goal, but provide different levels security and ease of use. The PBC method is the simpler of the two. In this method, the user pushes a button on the registrar (usually the AP) and a button on the enrollee (a laptop, cell phone, etc). The protocol then takes care of connecting to the correct AP and retrieving the encryption settings. The advantage of PBC is a very simple user interface, but there are a few issues: • The user must push both buttons within two minutes of each other. WPS refers to this time period as the "walk time". • Only one enrollee can use the PBC method at a time. The second enrollee using PBC will receive an error message and can either elect to wait until the other enrollee is done or use the PIN method without waiting. Note that this restriction is across all detected SSID and BSSID on all channels. • The method is unauthenticated and does not protect against active attacks The PIN method requires the user to retrieve a PIN number from the enrollee and enter it into the registrar either via a key pad or, more likely, through a web based interface. The user then notifies the enrollee that the registrar has accepted the PIN and can proceed with connection. This method is slightly more involved than PBC, but is no more complicated than getting money from a bank's cash machine.
VERSION HISTORY
- Version wps-20091211_00 posted on 2009-12-12
Several fixes and updates - Version wps-20091211_00 posted on 2009-12-12
Program Details
- Category: Security & Privacy > Other
- Publisher: wpsetup.sf.net
- License: Free
- Price: N/A
- Version: 20091211
- Platform: windows