Even if you know you need to secure your Wi-Fi network (and you already have), you probably find all the security protocol acronyms a little bewildering. Read on as we highlight the differences between protocols like WEP, WPA, and WPA2, and why it matters which acronym you put on your home Wi-Fi network. Find out the difference between WEP, WPA and WPA2c Wi-Fi passwords
The difference between WEP, WPA and WPA2c Wi-Fi passwords
That is what matters?
He did what he was told to do, logged into his router after purchasing it, plugged it in for the first time, and set a password. Who cares what the little acronym was next to the security protocol she chose?
Turns out it matters a lot. As with all security standards, increasing computer power and exposed vulnerabilities have put older Wi-Fi standards at risk.
It’s your network, it’s your data, and if someone hijacks your network for their illegal shenanigans, it will be your door that the police knock on. Understanding the differences between security protocols and implementing the most advanced one your router can support (or upgrading it if it doesn’t support current generation security standards) is the difference between giving someone easy access to your home network and No.
WEP, WPA and WPA2: Wi-Fi security through the ages
Since the late 1990s, Wi-Fi security protocols have undergone multiple updates, with older protocols completely deprecated and newer protocols significantly revised. A walk through the history of Wi-Fi security serves to highlight both what’s out there right now and why you should avoid older standards.
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is the most widely used Wi-Fi security protocol in the world. This is a function of age, backwards compatibility, and the fact that it appears first in the protocol selection menus in many router control panels.
WEP was ratified as a Wi-Fi security standard in September 1999. Early versions of WEP were not particularly robust, even by the time they were released, because US restrictions on the export of various cryptographic technologies led manufacturers to restrict your devices. to 64-bit encryption only.
When the restrictions were lifted, it was increased to 128 bits. Despite the introduction of 256-bit WEP, 128-bit is still one of the most common implementations.
Despite revisions to the protocol and increased key size, numerous security flaws in the WEP standard were discovered over time. As computing power increased, it became easier and easier to exploit those flaws. As early as 2001, proof-of-concept exploits were floating around, and in 2005, the FBI gave a public demonstration (in an effort to raise awareness of WEP’s weaknesses) in which they cracked WEP passwords in minutes using freely available software.
Despite various enhancements, fixes, and other attempts to shore up the WEP system, it remains highly vulnerable. Systems that depend on WEP should be updated or, if security updates are not an option, replaced. The Wi-Fi Alliance officially retired WEP in 2004.
Wi-Fi Protected Access – Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) was the Wi-Fi Alliance’s direct response and replacement to the increasingly apparent vulnerabilities in the WEP standard. WPA was formally adopted in 2003, a year before WEP was officially retired. The most common WPA configuration is WPA-PSK (pre-shared key).
The keys used by WPA are 256 bits long, a significant increase over the 64 and 128 bit keys used in the WEP system.
Some of the significant changes implemented with WPA included message integrity checks (to determine if an attacker had captured or tampered with packets passed between the access point and the client) and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP).
TKIP used a per-packet key system that was radically more secure than the fixed key system used by WEP. The TKIP encryption standard was later superseded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Despite WPA’s significant improvement over WEP, the specter of WEP haunted WPA. TKIP, a core component of WPA, was designed to be easily implemented via firmware updates on existing WEP-enabled devices. As such, it had to recycle certain elements used in the WEP system which were ultimately exploited as well.
WPA, like its predecessor WEP, has been shown through public applied and proof-of-concept demonstrations to be vulnerable to intrusion. Interestingly, the process by which WPA is typically breached is not a direct attack on the WPA protocol (although such attacks have been successfully demonstrated), but attacks on a complementary system that was implemented with WPA: Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). ), which was designed to make it easy to link devices to modern access points.
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Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2)
WPA, as of 2006, has been officially superseded by WPA2. One of the most significant changes between WPA and WPA2 is the mandatory use of AES algorithms and the introduction of CCMP (Blockchain Message Authentication Code Protocol Cipher Counter Mode) as a replacement for TKIP. However, TKIP is still preserved in WPA2 as a fallback and for interoperability with WPA.
Currently, the main security vulnerability of the actual WPA2 system is obscure (requiring the attacker to already have access to the secure Wi-Fi network to gain access to certain keys and then perpetuate an attack against other devices on the network). ).
As such, the security implications of the known WPA2 vulnerabilities are almost entirely limited to enterprise-grade networks and merit little or no practical consideration regarding home network security.
Unfortunately, the same vulnerability that is the biggest hole in WPA’s armor, the attack vector via Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), remains in modern WPA2-capable access points. Although accessing a secure WPA/WPA2 network using this vulnerability requires between 2 and 14 hours of sustained effort with a modern computer, it is still a legitimate security concern.
WPS should be disabled and if possible the access point’s firmware should be upgraded to a distro that doesn’t even support WPS, so the attack vector is completely removed.
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Wi-Fi security history acquired; Now what?
At this point, you’re either feeling a little smug (because you’re confidently using the best security protocol available for your Wi-Fi access point) or a little nervous (because you chose WEP because it was at the top of the list). ). If you’re in the last field, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.
Before we provide you with a further reading list of our top Wi-Fi security articles, here’s the crash course. Here’s a basic list that ranks the current Wi-Fi security methods available on any modern (post-2006) router, ranked from best to worst:
- WPA2+AES
- WPA+AES
- WPA + TKIP / AES (TKIP exists as an alternative method)
- WPA+TKIP
- WEP
- Open network (no security at all)
Ideally, you’ll disable Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) and set your router to WPA2 + AES. Everything else on the list is one step less than ideal below that. Once you get to WEP, your security level is so low that it’s about as effective as a chain-link fence; the fence exists simply to say “hey, this is my property”, but anyone who really wants to get in can just climb over it.
If all this thinking about Wi-Fi security and encryption has you curious about other tricks and techniques you can easily implement to further secure your Wi-Fi network, we hope we’ve helped you figure out the difference between Wi-Fi passwords. WiFi WEP, WPA and WPA2c
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