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GPEN · Question #361

You work as a Network Administrator for Tech Perfect Inc. The company has a TCP/IP-based network. Rick, your assistant, is configuring some laptops for wireless access. For security, WEP needs to be…

The correct answer is D. The laptop will not be able to access the wireless network. WEP uses symmetric key encryption, requiring identical keys on both the client and the WAP; a mismatch causes authentication to fail entirely.

Penetration Testing Foundations & Reconnaissance

Question

You work as a Network Administrator for Tech Perfect Inc. The company has a TCP/IP-based network. Rick, your assistant, is configuring some laptops for wireless access. For security, WEP needs to be configured for wireless communication. By mistake, Rick configures different WEP keys in a laptop than that is configured on the Wireless Access Point (WAP). Which of the following statements is true in such situation?

Options

  • AThe laptop will be able to access the wireless network but the security will be compromised
  • BThe WAP will allow the connection with the guest account's privileges.
  • CThe laptop will be able to access the wireless network but other wireless devices will be
  • DThe laptop will not be able to access the wireless network.

How the community answered

(48 responses)
  • A
    10% (5)
  • B
    4% (2)
  • C
    2% (1)
  • D
    83% (40)

Why each option

WEP uses symmetric key encryption, requiring identical keys on both the client and the WAP; a mismatch causes authentication to fail entirely.

AThe laptop will be able to access the wireless network but the security will be compromised

WEP does not fall back to an unencrypted or reduced-security mode when keys mismatch; the connection attempt is rejected outright.

BThe WAP will allow the connection with the guest account's privileges.

WEP has no guest account or privilege-downgrade mechanism; an incorrect key simply causes the association to fail.

CThe laptop will be able to access the wireless network but other wireless devices will be

A key mismatch affects only the misconfigured laptop's ability to connect; other wireless clients using the correct key are completely unaffected.

DThe laptop will not be able to access the wireless network.Correct

WEP authentication requires that the client and the WAP share the exact same static key. If the keys differ, the challenge-response handshake fails because the client encrypts the challenge with a different key than the WAP expects, resulting in a rejected association. The laptop is therefore completely denied access to the wireless network with no fallback.

Concept tested: WEP symmetric key matching and authentication failure

Source: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/aironet-1100-series/43210-wep-config.html

Topics

#WEP#wireless access point#key mismatch#WLAN authentication

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