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6 .TH "WPA_SUPPLICANT" "8" "08 February 2006" "" ""
9 wpa_supplicant \- Wi-Fi Protected Access client and IEEE 802.1X supplicant
12 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR [ \fB-BddehLqqvw\fR ] [ \fB-i\fIifname\fB\fR ] [ \fB-c\fIconfig file\fB\fR ] [ \fB-D\fIdriver\fB\fR ]
16 Wireless networks do not require physical access to the network equipment
17 in the same way as wired networks. This makes it easier for unauthorized
18 users to passively monitor a network and capture all transmitted frames.
19 In addition, unauthorized use of the network is much easier. In many cases,
20 this can happen even without user's explicit knowledge since the wireless
21 LAN adapter may have been configured to automatically join any available
24 Link-layer encryption can be used to provide a layer of security for
25 wireless networks. The original wireless LAN standard, IEEE 802.11,
26 included a simple encryption mechanism, WEP. However, that proved to
27 be flawed in many areas and network protected with WEP cannot be consider
28 secure. IEEE 802.1X authentication and frequently changed dynamic WEP keys
29 can be used to improve the network security, but even that has inherited
30 security issues due to the use of WEP for encryption. Wi-Fi Protected
31 Access and IEEE 802.11i amendment to the wireless LAN standard introduce
32 a much improvement mechanism for securing wireless networks. IEEE 802.11i
33 enabled networks that are using CCMP (encryption mechanism based on strong
34 cryptographic algorithm AES) can finally be called secure used for
35 applications which require efficient protection against unauthorized
38 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR is an implementation of
39 the WPA Supplicant component, i.e., the part that runs in the
40 client stations. It implements WPA key negotiation with a WPA
41 Authenticator and EAP authentication with Authentication
42 Server. In addition, it controls the roaming and IEEE 802.11
43 authentication/association of the wireless LAN driver.
45 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR is designed to be a
46 "daemon" program that runs in the background and acts as the
47 backend component controlling the wireless
48 connection. \fBwpa_supplicant\fR supports separate
49 frontend programs and an example text-based frontend,
50 \fBwpa_cli\fR, is included with
53 Before wpa_supplicant can do its work, the network interface
54 must be available. That means that the physical device must be
55 present and enabled, and the driver for the device must have be
56 loaded. Note, however, that the '-w' option of the wpa_supplicant
57 daemon instructs the daemon to continue running and to wait for
58 the interface to become available. Without the '-w' option, the
59 daemon will exit immediately if the device is not already
62 After \fBwpa_supplicant\fR has configured the
63 network device, higher level configuration such as DHCP may
64 proceed. There are a variety of ways to integrate wpa_supplicant
65 into a machine's networking scripts, a few of which are described
68 The following steps are used when associating with an AP
72 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR requests the kernel
73 driver to scan neighboring BSSes
76 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR selects a BSS based on
80 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR requests the kernel
81 driver to associate with the chosen BSS
84 If WPA-EAP: integrated IEEE 802.1X Supplicant or
85 external Xsupplicant completes EAP authentication with the
86 authentication server (proxied by the Authenticator in the
90 If WPA-EAP: master key is received from the IEEE 802.1X
94 If WPA-PSK: \fBwpa_supplicant\fR uses PSK
95 as the master session key
98 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR completes WPA 4-Way
99 Handshake and Group Key Handshake with the Authenticator
103 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR configures encryption
104 keys for unicast and broadcast
107 normal data packets can be transmitted and received
108 .SH "SUPPORTED FEATURES"
110 Supported WPA/IEEE 802.11i features:
113 WPA-PSK ("WPA-Personal")
116 WPA with EAP (e.g., with RADIUS authentication server)
117 ("WPA-Enterprise") Following authentication methods are
118 supported with an integrate IEEE 802.1X Supplicant:
127 EAP-PEAP/MSCHAPv2 (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)
130 EAP-PEAP/TLS (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)
133 EAP-PEAP/GTC (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)
136 EAP-PEAP/OTP (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)
139 EAP-PEAP/MD5-Challenge (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)
142 EAP-TTLS/EAP-MD5-Challenge
151 EAP-TTLS/EAP-MSCHAPv2
181 LEAP (note: requires special support from
182 the driver for IEEE 802.11 authentication)
185 (following methods are supported, but since
186 they do not generate keying material, they cannot be used
187 with WPA or IEEE 802.1X WEP keying)
203 key management for CCMP, TKIP, WEP104, WEP40
206 RSN/WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i)
215 .SH "AVAILABLE DRIVERS"
217 The available drivers to specify with the -D option are:
220 (default) Host AP driver (Intersil Prism2/2.5/3).
221 (this can also be used with Linuxant DriverLoader).
224 Agere Systems Inc. driver (Hermes-I/Hermes-II).
227 MADWIFI 802.11 support (Atheros, etc.).
230 ATMEL AT76C5XXx (USB, PCMCIA).
233 Linux wireless extensions (generic).
239 Broadcom wl.o driver.
242 Intel ipw2100/2200 driver.
245 wpa_supplicant wired Ethernet driver
248 BSD 802.11 support (Atheros, etc.).
252 .SH "COMMAND LINE OPTIONS"
255 Run daemon in the background.
258 Interface to listen on.
261 Path to configuration file.
264 Driver to use. See the available options below.
267 Increase debugging verbosity (-dd even more).
270 Include keys (passwords, etc.) in debug output.
273 Include timestamp in debug messages.
276 Use external IEEE 802.1X Supplicant (e.g.,
277 \fBxsupplicant\fR) (this disables the internal
281 Help. Show a usage message.
284 Show license (GPL and BSD).
287 Decrease debugging verbosity (-qq even less).
293 wait for interface to be added, if needed. normally,
294 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR will exit if the interface
298 Start describing new interface.
301 In most common cases, \fBwpa_supplicant\fR is
307 wpa_supplicant -Bw -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0
311 This makes the process fork into background and wait for the wlan0
312 interface if it is not available at startup time.
314 The easiest way to debug problems, and to get debug log for
315 bug reports, is to start \fBwpa_supplicant\fR on
316 foreground with debugging enabled:
321 wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0 -d
325 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR can control multiple
326 interfaces (radios) either by running one process for each
327 interface separately or by running just one process and list of
328 options at command line. Each interface is separated with -N
329 argument. As an example, following command would start
330 wpa_supplicant for two interfaces:
336 -c wpa1.conf -i wlan0 -D hostap -N \\
337 -c wpa2.conf -i ath0 -D madwifi
340 .SH "OS REQUIREMENTS"
342 Current hardware/software requirements:
345 Linux kernel 2.4.x or 2.6.x with Linux Wireless
346 Extensions v15 or newer
352 Microsoft Windows with WinPcap (at least WinXP, may work
354 .SH "SUPPORTED DRIVERS"
356 \fBHost AP driver for Prism2/2.5/3 (development snapshot/v0.2.x)\fR
357 (http://hostap.epitest.fi/) Driver needs to be set in
358 Managed mode ('iwconfig wlan0 mode managed'). Please note
359 that station firmware version needs to be 1.7.0 or newer to
362 \fBLinuxant DriverLoader\fR
363 (http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/)
364 with Windows NDIS driver for your wlan card supporting WPA.
366 \fBAgere Systems Inc. Linux Driver\fR
367 (http://www.agere.com/support/drivers/) Please note
368 that the driver interface file (driver_hermes.c) and hardware
369 specific include files are not included in the wpa_supplicant
370 distribution. You will need to copy these from the source
371 package of the Agere driver.
373 \fBmadwifi driver for cards based on Atheros chip set (ar521x)\fR
374 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/) Please
375 note that you will need to modify the wpa_supplicant .config
376 file to use the correct path for the madwifi driver root
377 directory (CFLAGS += -I../madwifi/wpa line in example
380 \fBATMEL AT76C5XXx driver for USB and PCMCIA cards\fR
381 (http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/).
383 \fBLinux ndiswrapper\fR
384 (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/) with Windows
387 \fBBroadcom wl.o driver\fR
388 This is a generic Linux driver for Broadcom IEEE
389 802.11a/g cards. However, it is proprietary driver that is
390 not publicly available except for couple of exceptions, mainly
391 Broadcom-based APs/wireless routers that use Linux. The driver
392 binary can be downloaded, e.g., from Linksys support site
393 (http://www.linksys.com/support/gpl.asp) for Linksys
394 WRT54G. The GPL tarball includes cross-compiler and the needed
395 header file, wlioctl.h, for compiling wpa_supplicant. This
396 driver support in wpa_supplicant is expected to work also with
397 other devices based on Broadcom driver (assuming the driver
398 includes client mode support).
400 \fB Intel ipw2100 driver\fR
401 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipw2100/)
403 \fBIntel ipw2200 driver\fR
404 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipw2200/)
406 \fBLinux wireless extensions\fR
407 In theory, any driver that supports Linux wireless
408 extensions can be used with IEEE 802.1X (i.e., not WPA) when
409 using ap_scan=0 option in configuration file.
411 \fBWired Ethernet drivers\fR
414 \fBBSD net80211 layer (e.g., Atheros driver)\fR
415 At the moment, this is for FreeBSD 6-CURRENT branch.
418 The current Windows port requires WinPcap
419 (http://winpcap.polito.it/). See README-Windows.txt for more
422 wpa_supplicant was designed to be portable for different
423 drivers and operating systems. Hopefully, support for more wlan
424 cards and OSes will be added in the future. See developer.txt for
425 more information about the design of wpa_supplicant and porting to
426 other drivers. One main goal is to add full WPA/WPA2 support to
427 Linux wireless extensions to allow new drivers to be supported
428 without having to implement new driver-specific interface code in
433 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR system consists of the following
436 \fB\fIwpa_supplicant.conf\fB \fR
437 the configuration file describing all networks that the
438 user wants the computer to connect to.
441 the program that directly interacts with the
446 client program that provides a high-level interface to the
447 functionality of the daemon.
450 a utility needed to construct
451 \fIwpa_supplicant.conf\fR files that include
455 First, make a configuration file, e.g.
456 \fI/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf\fR, that describes the networks
457 you are interested in. See \fBwpa_supplicant\fR(5)
460 Once the configuration is ready, you can test whether the
461 configuration works by running \fBwpa_supplicant\fR
462 with following command to start it on foreground with debugging
468 wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -d
473 Assuming everything goes fine, you can start using following
474 command to start \fBwpa_supplicant\fR on background
480 wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
485 Please note that if you included more than one driver
486 interface in the build time configuration (.config), you may need
487 to specify which interface to use by including -D<driver
488 name> option on the command line.
489 .SH "INTERFACE TO PCMCIA-CS/CARDMRG"
491 For example, following small changes to pcmcia-cs scripts
492 can be used to enable WPA support:
494 Add MODE="Managed" and WPA="y" to the network scheme in
495 \fI/etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts\fR\&.
497 Add the following block to the end of 'start' action handler
498 in \fI/etc/pcmcia/wireless\fR:
503 if [ "$WPA" = "y" -a -x /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant ]; then
504 /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant -Bw -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -i$DEVICE
510 Add the following block to the end of 'stop' action handler
511 (may need to be separated from other actions) in
512 \fI/etc/pcmcia/wireless\fR:
517 if [ "$WPA" = "y" -a -x /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant ]; then
518 killall wpa_supplicant
524 This will make \fBcardmgr\fR start
525 \fBwpa_supplicant\fR when the card is plugged
526 in. \fBwpa_supplicant\fR will wait until the
527 interface is set up--either when a static IP address is configured
528 or when DHCP client is started--and will then negotiate keys with
532 \fBwpa_background\fR(8)
533 \fBwpa_supplicant.conf\fR(5)
535 \fBwpa_passphrase\fR(8)
538 wpa_supplicant is copyright (c) 2003-2005,
539 Jouni Malinen <jkmaline@cc.hut.fi> and
543 This program is dual-licensed under both the GPL version 2
544 and BSD license. Either license may be used at your option.