Authentication and WEP Encryption

The absence of a physical connection between nodes makes the wireless links vulnerable to information theft. To provide a certain level of security, IEEE

802.11standard has defined two types of authentication methods, Open System and Shared Key. Open System authentication is a null algorithm. Shared Key authentication is an algorithm where both the transmitting node and the receiving node share an authentication key to perform a checksum on the original message. By default, IEEE 802.11 wireless devices operate in an open system network.

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) data encryption is utilized when the wireless nodes or access points are configured to operate in Shared Key authentication mode. There are three shared key methods implemented in Netgear’s 802.11a solutions: the standard based forty-bit WEP data encryption and 128-bit WEP data encryption plus the extended 152-bit WEP data encryption.

The forty-bit WEP data encryption method allows for a five-character (forty-bit) input. Additionally, 24 factory-set bits are added to the forty-bit input to generate a 64-bit encryption key. (The 24 factory-set bits are not user configurable.) This encryption key will be used to encrypt/decrypt all data transmitted via the wireless interface. Some vendors may refer to the forty-bit WEP data encryption as 64-bit WEP data encryption since the actual encryption key used in the encryption process is 64 bits wide.