Wi-Fi Security – Securing Access

François Vergès discusses Wi-Fi security and securing the access to the Wi-Fi network.

On episode 56, we have talked about the legacy Wi-Fi security mechanisms and we explained why they are not considered safe and secure anymore and why we should not be using them in our modern Wi-Fi networks deployments.

In this follow up episode, we want to start going over the stronger and safer way to secure a Wi-Fi network. We are focusing on how the client devices can securely connect and exchange data over a Wi-Fi network.

This episode will answer the following questions:

• How does a client station securely connect to a Wi-Fi network?
• What is WPA?
• What is the difference between WPA and WPA2?
• How does the Personal and Enterprise mode of operation work?
• What is 802.1X and how is it related to Wi-Fi security?
• What is required in order to authenticate client devices using 802.1X?
• What is the 4-way handshake?
• What are the secured EAP methods?
• What do we need to do in order to securely use WPA/PA2-Personal?
• What is considered a strong password?
• How does a client station securely exchange data over the Wi-Fi network?

Resources

Here are the links to the videos we talked about during this episode:

• 4-way handshake video from CWNP by Marcus Burton
• Authentication and key management video from CWNP by Marcus Burton
• WPA and WPA2 video from CWNP by Marcus Burton
• Setup FreeRadius:
  • http://www.semfionetworks.com/blog/setup-freeradius-on-kali-linux-for-8021x-authentication
  • https://www.packet6.com/install-freeradius-ubuntu-server/

Here are a couple of diagrams related to the Wi-Fi security topic:

• Wi-Fi Security Timeline
• 802.1X Example:

If we want to dive deeper into the topic of Wi-Fi security, you can read the following book:

• CWSP Book

Other resources we talked about:

• SANS strong password guidelines

Password generation website: xkpasswd.net