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WiFi Protected Access

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a security protocol used together with 802.11 networks to address the lack of proper authentication and the weakness of WEP. WPA leverages the 802.1X authentication protocol and uses one of several ciphers instead of WEP for data integrity. The only cipher required by WPA is TKIP (Temporary Key Integrity Protocol). TKIP is a cipher that extends the basic RC4 cipher used by WEP by adding integrity checking, tamper detection, and measures for responding to any detected intrusions. TKIP is designed to work on legacy hardware with only software modification; it represents a compromise that improves security but is still not entirely immune to attack. WPA also specifies the AES-CCMP cipher as an alternative to TKIP and that is preferred when possible; for this specification the term WPA2 (or RSN) is commonly used.

WPA defines authentication and encryption protocols. Authentication is most commonly done using one of two techniques: by 802.1X and a backend authentication service such as RADIUS, or by a minimal handshake between the station and the access point using a pre-shared secret. The former is commonly termed WPA Enterprise with the latter known as WPA Personal. Since most people will not set up a RADIUS backend server for their wireless network, WPA-PSK is by far the most commonly encountered configuration for WPA.

WPA-PSK

WPA-PSK, also known as WPA-Personal, is based on a pre-shared key (PSK) generated from a given password and that will be used as the master key in the wireless network. This means every wireless user will share the same key. WPA-PSK is intended for small networks where the use of an authentication server is not possible or desired.

Warning: Always use strong passwords that are sufficiently long and made from a rich alphabet so they will not be guessed and/or attacked.

The first step is the configuration of the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file with the SSID and the pre-shared key of your network:

network={
ssid="freebsdap"
psk="freebsdmall"
}

Then, in /etc/rc.conf, we indicate that the wireless device configuration will be done with WPA and the IP address will be obtained with DHCP:

wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

Then we can bring up the interface:

# /etc/rc.d/netif start
Starting wpa_supplicant.
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.0.1
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.0.1
bound to 192.168.0.254 -- renewal in 300 seconds.
wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
      ether 00:11:95:d5:43:62
      inet 192.168.0.254 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
      media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet OFDM/36Mbps mode 11g
      status: associated
      ssid freebsdap channel 1 (2412 Mhz 11g) bssid 00:11:95:c3:0d:ac
      country US ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i privacy ON deftxkey UNDEF
      AES-CCM 3:128-bit txpower 21.5 bmiss 7 scanvalid 450 bgscan
      bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi 7 roam:rate 5 protmode CTS
      wme burst roaming MANUAL