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One event at CES 2018 that was overlooked by many people was the Wi-Fi Alliance announcement of WPA3, a long overdue update to Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). This increases the strength of a security protocol that hasn’t been updated in 14 years.

The Wi-Fi Alliance says Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic, so improvements to WPA are good news. The WPA3 update is a response to the evolution of Wi-Fi usage and WPA2 vulnerabilities. There are four improvements to Wi-Fi Protected Access via WPA3 over the current standard (WPA2).

Stronger passwords

WPA3 gets a new layer of protection so its security is not contingent on passwords (as followers of the Bach Seat know, passwords suck). WPA3 is an improvement on WPA2’s largest vulnerability the handshake when the key is being exchanged. KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack) is a major vulnerability discovered in 2017 in WPA2 and WPA. It exploits the Wi-Fi handshake. KRACK allows attackers to snoop on encrypted data being transferred between computers and wireless access points (WAP).

Brute force “dictionary attacks” are the backbone of the KRACK attack. WPA3 implements IEEE 802.11s, Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) to provide protection against this flaw. SAE is also known as the Dragonfly protocol. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) describes Dragonfly,“ employs discrete logarithm cryptography to perform an efficient exchange in a way that performs mutual authentication using a password that is probably resistant to an offline dictionary attack.”

This improvement will offer better security even if poor passwords are used. This feature is very useful since we know that users have difficulties creating strong and hard-to-guess passwords. The Wi-Fi Alliance claims WPA3 makes it almost impossible to breach a Wi-Fi network using the current dictionary and brute-force attacks.  Mathy Vanhoef, the security researcher who discovered KRACK, appears very enthusiastic about the security improvements in WPA3.

Secure public Wi-Fi

WPA3 secured open networks will offer more privacy than ever before. Everything transmitted over today’s open Wi-Fi networks at airports, coffee shop, libraries, are sent in plain text that people can intercept. WPA3 will apply encryption to each user on the public Wi-Fi to eliminate clear text with “individualized data encryption”.

Malwarebytes Lab speculates that WPA3 will include Opportunistic Wireless Encryption. OWE enables connection on an open network without a shared and public Pre-Shared Key (PSK). That’s important because a PSK can give hackers easy access to the Traffic Encryption Keys (TEKs), allowing them access to a data stream. OWE implements a Diffie-Hellman key exchange during network sign-on and uses the resulting secret for the 4-way 802.11 handshake and not the shared, public Pre-Shared Key (PSK) that can be easily exploited. WPA3 will be more difficult for people to snoop on your web browsing without actually cracking the encryption while you’re at Starbucks.

Stronger encryption

WPA3 will use stronger cryptographic algorithms. The new security protocol will use the  Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) 192-bit encryption mandated by the U.S. government for secure Wi-Fi networks. Experts speculate WPA3 will use a 48-bit initialization vector to support backward compatibility with WPA and WPA2  The 192-bit encryption will make WPA3 compliant with the highest security standards and fit for use in networks with the most stringent security requirements. (rb- Ironic – Go to the CNSA site and get an invalid cert warning in Chrome) The CNSS is part of the US National Security Agency.

Easier IoT security

The WPA3 update simplifies setting up secure Wi-Fi connections for devices that don’t have a graphical user interface. This is critical the secure the 30.7 billion IoT devices that will be on the network by 2020. The new protocol will add Device Provisioning Protocol (DPP) which sets up a simple, secure and consistent method for securing devices with limited or no display. NetworkWorld reports that You will be able to tap a smartphone against a device or sensor and then provision the device on the network.

What happens to WPA2 devices

So far, most manufacturers have been quiet about legacy device support. We do know that future W-Fi certified WPA3 routers will be backward compatible to support WPA2. The question remains whether current WPA2 devices will be capable of connecting to WPA3.

WPA2 devices are not immediately obsolete. The Wi-Fi Alliance explained that current WPA2 devices will be able to connect with WPA3 hardware. The Alliance also announced that it will continue to do security tests on WPA2 to further protect wireless networks. WPA3 is not an immediate replacement for WPA2

Even after you get a WPA3 enabled router, you’ll need WPA3 compatible client devices—your laptop, phone, refrigerator, security camera, industrial temperature sensor, or anything that connects to Wi-Fi—to fully take advantage of the WPA3 features. The good news is that shiny new router will accept both WPA2 and WPA3 connections at the same time.

Even when WPA3 is widespread, expect a long transition period where some devices are connecting to your router with WPA2 and others are connecting with WPA3. Once all your devices support WPA3, you should disable WPA2 connectivity on your router to improve security.

rb-

I am suspicious about the NSA link to the new WPA3 encryption. The NSA has introduced weaknesses in other encryption protocols.

Until we get our hands on real hardware, it is safe to speculate that like all things Wi-Fi, backward compatibility will cost your performance. What will the impact of one legacy device have on the capabilities of the WAP? Have a pair and turn off 802.11, 802.11b, WEP, and WPA connections on your current router.

It’s about time to update WPA. But as the 802.11n process proved, if you want to get nothing done, turn it over to an industry consortium. Andy Patrizio at NetworkWorld explained that’s where standards go to die because everyone wants their IP used so they make money off every sale. The end result is nothing gets done.

Related article

• The new front line of cyber security is mobility (Information Age)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.