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Wi-Fi WPS Protocol Security

M

mike5757

Member
Out of pure curiosity, I'm wondering how secure the transfer of the network password and other variables from the AP to the client is when using WPS. If someone intercepted the WPS handshake, could they get this information? Is the data encrypted?
 
It's not anywhere close to secure.

It's a marketing gimmick for people too stupid to configure wifi on their devices themselves, push the button and it just works! Theres actually quite a few major security flaws with it that can give an outside attacker easy access to your router, you should disable it wherever possible.
 
Mushkins said:
It's a marketing gimmick for people too stupid to configure wifi on their devices themselves, push the button and it just works
Click to expand...

It also allows wifi printers to be cheaper to manufacture because they just need a little WPS button instead of a tiny LCD display and buttons to type in the passphrase. I suspect/hope some of those can have the wifi configured over USB though.
 
The venerability only exists after pushing the button. It's not even a venerability. It's just bad programming where they didn't bother to properly timeout the push button. The fix is simple, but there aren't very many router companies that pushed out firmware updates.

That is the sole reason why I have retired 2 wireless routers in my family. The good news! DD-WRT compatible routers (which get updated frequently) are much easier to find and far cheaper these days.
 
lagokc said:
I suspect/hope some of those can have the wifi configured over USB though.
Click to expand...

My Brother HL-2170W has nothing but a few LEDs on the front; no display. But I just briefly connected it via ethernet to configure it and set it up to join my wireless network (including WPA2 key), and it works fine. I'm assuming USB is an option as well, but never checked.
 
I understand that WPS is vulnerable due to some major flaws. My question was more about the exchange of data between the AP and the client after the button is pushed or the PIN is entered. I couldn't find anything on the details of the protocol used for that exchange. If the vulnerable PIN method was removed from the WPS standard, how secure would it be?
 
From what I've seen, certainly in the UK, product line-ups are being altered because some router manufacturers have withdrawn the WPS feature. Most notably the BT Home Hub no longer has WPS and the feature has been disabled with firmware updates on older versions of the hub. As BT is probably the most popular broadband provider in the UK, its decision to abandon WPS carries a lot of weight here.

In my experience, I have no idea why, but WPS rarely worked even when it was considered to be OK to use.

mike5757 said:
I understand that WPS is vulnerable due to some major flaws. My question was more about the exchange of data between the AP and the client after the button is pushed or the PIN is entered. I couldn't find anything on the details of the protocol used for that exchange. If the vulnerable PIN method was removed from the WPS standard, how secure would it be?
Click to expand...

I don't know the specifics of its vulnerability, but even if the PIN method is removed, that requires a whole new version of the standard to be drafted, agreed to by the major manufacturers and rolled out. That takes time.
 
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