Explore the intricacies of PSK (Pre-Shared Key) authentication, a secure connection method supported by WPA and WPA2 in Wi-Fi networks. Discover how PSK authentication works and its role in establishing encrypted wireless communication using a shared secret key.
Table of Contents
Question
Which of the following statement, about PSK authentication is true?
A. A unique key can be assigned to each user attempting to get connected to the same SSID.
B. There is no need to pre-configure a key on the STA and AP.
C. WPA supports PSK authentication.
D. WEP supports PSK authentication.
Answer
C. WPA supports PSK authentication.
Explanation
The statement “WPA supports PSK authentication” is true.
PSK (Pre-Shared Key) authentication is a method used in Wi-Fi networks to establish secure connections between wireless clients (STAs) and access points (APs). In PSK authentication, a shared secret key is configured on both the STA and the AP before the connection is established. This shared key is used to derive the encryption keys for securing the wireless communication.
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and its successor, WPA2, support PSK authentication as one of the authentication modes. Specifically:
- WPA-Personal (also known as WPA-PSK): This mode uses a pre-shared key for authentication and encryption. The same key is configured on both the STA and the AP.
- WPA2-Personal (also known as WPA2-PSK): This mode is similar to WPA-Personal but uses stronger encryption algorithms and is part of the IEEE 802.11i standard.
PSK authentication provides a simpler and more user-friendly alternative to enterprise-grade authentication methods like 802.1X/EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol), which require a RADIUS server for authentication.
The other statements in the question are false:
A. A unique key is not assigned to each user attempting to connect to the same SSID. In PSK authentication, a single shared key is used for all clients connecting to the same SSID.
B. There is a need to pre-configure the key on both the STA and the AP before establishing a connection.
D. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) does not support PSK authentication. WEP uses static, pre-shared keys for encryption but does not have a separate authentication mechanism like PSK.
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