topic Re: howto set WEP encryption on wireless card using passphrase ? in Operating System - Linux

howto set WEP encryption on wireless card using passphrase ?

'chris' — Sat, 22 May 2004 17:07:04 GMT

hi

I can set WEP encryption on my wireless card with following command:

iwconfig eth1 essid MYWLANID key 5B3F929A17C4C659FD081C9D07

but how it works with a passphrase ?

is it passphrase supported ?

kind regards
chris

Re: howto set WEP encryption on wireless card using passphrase ?

'chris' — Sat, 22 May 2004 17:40:40 GMT

man iwconfig says:

........................
key/enc[ryption]
Used to manipulate encryption or scrambling keys
and encryption mode.
To set the current encryption key, just enter the
key in hex digits as XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX or
XXXXXXXX. To set a key other than the current key,
prepend or append [index] to the key itself (this
won't change which is the active key). You can also
enter the key as an ASCII string by using the s:
prefix. Passphrase is currently not supported.
To change which key is the current active key, just
enter [index] (without entering any key value).
........................

Passphrase is currently not supported !

Re: howto set WEP encryption on wireless card using passphrase ?

'chris' — Mon, 24 May 2004 13:39:32 GMT

I found out:

with

# iwconfig wlan0 essid key:mypassphrase

it works well !

greetings
chris

Re: howto set WEP encryption on wireless card using passphrase ?

Thomas Bianco — Mon, 24 May 2004 17:40:57 GMT

There are two accepted methods to change "passphrase" into keys. 1) Direct ASCII/hex conversion 2) Cryptographic padding.

1) Direct ASCII/hex conversion yield passwords that are EXACTLY 13 (128bit) or 5 (48 bit). They support any valid single byte ASCII symbol. Cisco, Broadcomm, and apple use this.

2) Cryptographic padding uses a predictable cryptographic function to hash the passphrase into a hex key of appropriate length. They accept any length password (to up an arbitrary max) and usually only support English Alphanumeric + punctuation. Linksys uses this.

I assume this is the first method, as there would be no changes required to the key ("a"=0x41).

Re: howto set WEP encryption on wireless card using passphrase ?

'chris' — Wed, 26 May 2004 17:34:59 GMT

hi

I found out, with:

iwconfig eth1 essid test key s:passphrase

it works well !

regards
chris