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Question

Difficulty: MediumWireless Security Protocols (WPA, WPA2, WPA3)

A network administrator is upgrading a remote office wireless LAN from WPA2-Personal to WPA3-Personal. The main objective of this upgrade is to protect user traffic against offline dictionary attacks if an attacker captures the initial wireless association exchange. Which key exchange mechanism implemented in WPA3-Personal mitigates this vulnerability?

  1. Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE)Answer
  2. B
    Counter Mode Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (CCMP)
  3. C
    Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS)
  4. D
    Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)

Answer

Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) is the key exchange mechanism in WPA3-Personal that prevents offline dictionary attacks.
Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) is the fundamental key exchange protocol defined in WPA3-Personal. Based on the Dragonfly key exchange algorithm, SAE provides zero-knowledge proof during authentication, making captured handshakes immune to offline dictionary attacks.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the deployment mode and vulnerability mentioned in the scenario
The scenario highlights upgrading WPA2-Personal to WPA3-Personal specifically to protect against offline dictionary password-guessing attacks resulting from captured handshakes.
WPA2-Personal relies on the 4-way handshake using a Pre-Shared Key (PSK), which is vulnerable to offline dictionary/brute-force attacks if captured.
2
Determine the WPA3-Personal authentication enhancement mechanism
WPA3-Personal replaces the 4-way PSK handshake with Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), based on the Dragonfly handshake.
SAE provides forward secrecy and renders captured handshake data useless for offline password cracking attempt tools.

Key Concept

WPA3-Personal Key Exchange (SAE vs WPA2 PSK)
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Topics

Wireless Security Protocols (WPA, WPA2, WPA3)

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