Supplicant (computer)
| wpa_supplicant
|
|
|---|---|
 wpa_gui (2005) |
|
| Basic data
|
|
| developer | Jouni Malinen et al. |
| Publishing year | 2003 |
| Current version | 2.6 (October 2, 2016) |
| operating system | Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Windows |
| programming language | C. |
| category | Supplicant |
| License | GPL |
| http://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/ | |
The WPA supplicant ( English supplicant : supplicant) [Unix name: wpa_supplicant ] is software for Linux , BSD , AROS and Windows , which performs the role of supplicant defined in the WPA standard.
With WPA, the keys used for encryption are regularly exchanged automatically. WPA uses keys in the old WEP format, which are made secure through regular automatic exchange. WEP keys can be cracked as soon as a minimum amount of data has been overheard. The regular key exchange ensures that the keys are replaced with new ones before this amount of data is reached.
The supplicant is responsible for the client part of the key exchange. The wireless access point requires the supplicant to authenticate himself at regular intervals . If the supplicant succeeds, he receives a new key from the access point, which is to be used from now on for the data transmission with the access point - until the access point exchanges the key again with the help of the supplicant. The supplicant therefore regularly reconfigures the key of a WLAN card via its device driver.
There are a number of protocols for authentication that the WPA supplicant can also use if they are supported by the hardware on the client side as well as on the access point. The wpa_supplicant supports WEP, WPA, WPA2 -encrypted and unencrypted WLANs.