CCNA® Wireless Study Guide

Chapter 5. Introduction to Wireless Security

THE CCNA WIRELESS EXAM TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER ARE:

• Implement basic WLAN Security

  • Describe the general framework of wireless security and security components (authentication, encryption, MFP, IPS)

  • Describe and configure authentication methods (Guest, PSK, 802.1X, WPA/WPA2 with EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST, PEAP, LEAP)

  • Describe and configure encryption methods (WPA/WPA2 with TKIP, AES)

  • Describe and configure the different sources of authentication (PSK, EAP-local or -external, Radius)

• Describe WLAN fundamentals

  • Describe 802.11 authentication and encryption methods (Open, Shared, 802.1X, EAP, TKIP, AES)

But don't misunderstand: I'm not just sitting here bashing the standards committees for the last decade, because the security problems we still face aren't completely their collective doing. The issues were compounded by the U.S. government because of export issues with its own security standards. Our world is a complicated place, so it follows that our security solutions would be as well!

In this chapter I am going to discuss the wireless threats that we face, the rudimentary (and insufficient) security methods provided by the 802.11 standard—specifically, the security weaknesses of WEP and the improvements provided by WPA. We will also explore the 802.11i standard and the improvements added with that amendment. When we discuss 802.11i we will examine ...