1 wpa_supplicant for Windows
2 ==========================
4 Copyright (c) 2003-2009, Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> and contributors
7 This program is licensed under the BSD license (the one with
8 advertisement clause removed).
11 wpa_supplicant has support for being used as a WPA/WPA2/IEEE 802.1X
12 Supplicant on Windows. The current port requires that WinPcap
13 (http://winpcap.polito.it/) is installed for accessing packets and the
14 driver interface. Both release versions 3.0 and 3.1 are supported.
16 The current port is still somewhat experimental. It has been tested
17 mainly on Windows XP (SP2) with limited set of NDIS drivers. In
18 addition, the current version has been reported to work with Windows
21 All security modes have been verified to work (at least complete
22 authentication and successfully ping a wired host):
24 - static WEP / open system authentication
25 - static WEP / shared key authentication
26 - IEEE 802.1X with dynamic WEP keys
27 - WPA-PSK, TKIP, CCMP, TKIP+CCMP
28 - WPA-EAP, TKIP, CCMP, TKIP+CCMP
29 - WPA2-PSK, TKIP, CCMP, TKIP+CCMP
30 - WPA2-EAP, TKIP, CCMP, TKIP+CCMP
33 Building wpa_supplicant with mingw
34 ----------------------------------
36 The default build setup for wpa_supplicant is to use MinGW and
37 cross-compiling from Linux to MinGW/Windows. It should also be
38 possible to build this under Windows using the MinGW tools, but that
39 is not tested nor supported and is likely to require some changes to
40 the Makefile unless cygwin is used.
43 Building wpa_supplicant with MSVC
44 ---------------------------------
46 wpa_supplicant can be built with Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. This
47 has been tested with Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 and Visual
48 Studio 2005 using the included nmake.mak as a Makefile for nmake. IDE
49 can also be used by creating a project that includes the files and
50 defines mentioned in nmake.mak. Example VS2005 solution and project
51 files are included in vs2005 subdirectory. This can be used as a
52 starting point for building the programs with VS2005 IDE. Visual Studio
53 2008 Express Edition is also able to use these project files.
55 WinPcap development package is needed for the build and this can be
56 downloaded from http://www.winpcap.org/install/bin/WpdPack_4_0_2.zip. The
57 default nmake.mak expects this to be unpacked into C:\dev\WpdPack so
58 that Include and Lib directories are in this directory. The files can be
59 stored elsewhere as long as the WINPCAPDIR in nmake.mak is updated to
60 match with the selected directory. In case a project file in the IDE is
61 used, these Include and Lib directories need to be added to project
62 properties as additional include/library directories.
64 OpenSSL source package can be downloaded from
65 http://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-0.9.8i.tar.gz and built and
66 installed following instructions in INSTALL.W32. Note that if EAP-FAST
67 support will be included in the wpa_supplicant, OpenSSL needs to be
68 patched to# support it openssl-0.9.8i-tls-extensions.patch. The example
69 nmake.mak file expects OpenSSL to be installed into C:\dev\openssl, but
70 this directory can be modified by changing OPENSSLDIR variable in
73 If you do not need EAP-FAST support, you may also be able to use Win32
74 binary installation package of OpenSSL from
75 http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html instead of building
76 the library yourself. In this case, you will need to copy Include and
77 Lib directories in suitable directory, e.g., C:\dev\openssl for the
78 default nmake.mak. Copy {Win32OpenSSLRoot}\include into
79 C:\dev\openssl\include and make C:\dev\openssl\lib subdirectory with
80 files from {Win32OpenSSLRoot}\VC (i.e., libeay*.lib and ssleay*.lib).
81 This will end up using dynamically linked OpenSSL (i.e., .dll files are
82 needed) for it. Alternative, you can copy files from
83 {Win32OpenSSLRoot}\VC\static to create a static build (no OpenSSL .dll
87 Building wpa_supplicant for cygwin
88 ----------------------------------
90 wpa_supplicant can be built for cygwin by installing the needed
91 development packages for cygwin. This includes things like compiler,
92 make, openssl development package, etc. In addition, developer's pack
93 for WinPcap (WPdpack.zip) from
94 http://winpcap.polito.it/install/default.htm is needed.
96 .config file should enable only one driver interface,
97 CONFIG_DRIVER_NDIS. In addition, include directories may need to be
98 added to match the system. An example configuration is available in
99 defconfig. The library and include files for WinPcap will either need
100 to be installed in compiler/linker default directories or their
101 location will need to be adding to .config when building
104 Othen than this, the build should be more or less identical to Linux
105 version, i.e., just run make after having created .config file. An
106 additional tool, win_if_list.exe, can be built by running "make
113 wpa_gui uses Qt application framework from Trolltech. It can be built
114 with the open source version of Qt4 and MinGW. Following commands can
115 be used to build the binary in the Qt 4 Command Prompt:
117 # go to the root directory of wpa_supplicant source code
119 qmake -o Makefile wpa_gui.pro
121 # the wpa_gui.exe binary is created into 'release' subdirectory
124 Using wpa_supplicant for Windows
125 --------------------------------
127 wpa_supplicant, wpa_cli, and wpa_gui behave more or less identically to
128 Linux version, so instructions in README and example wpa_supplicant.conf
129 should be applicable for most parts. In addition, there is another
130 version of wpa_supplicant, wpasvc.exe, which can be used as a Windows
131 service and which reads its configuration from registry instead of
134 When using access points in "hidden SSID" mode, ap_scan=2 mode need to
135 be used (see wpa_supplicant.conf for more information).
137 Windows NDIS/WinPcap uses quite long interface names, so some care
138 will be needed when starting wpa_supplicant. Alternatively, the
139 adapter description can be used as the interface name which may be
140 easier since it is usually in more human-readable
141 format. win_if_list.exe can be used to find out the proper interface
144 Example steps in starting up wpa_supplicant:
147 ifname: \Device\NPF_GenericNdisWanAdapter
148 description: Generic NdisWan adapter
150 ifname: \Device\NPF_{769E012B-FD17-4935-A5E3-8090C38E25D2}
151 description: Atheros Wireless Network Adapter (Microsoft's Packet Scheduler)
153 ifname: \Device\NPF_{732546E7-E26C-48E3-9871-7537B020A211}
154 description: Intel 8255x-based Integrated Fast Ethernet (Microsoft's Packet Scheduler)
157 Since the example configuration used Atheros WLAN card, the middle one
158 is the correct interface in this case. The interface name for -i
159 command line option is the full string following "ifname:" (the
160 "\Device\NPF_" prefix can be removed). In other words, wpa_supplicant
161 would be started with the following command:
163 # wpa_supplicant.exe -i'{769E012B-FD17-4935-A5E3-8090C38E25D2}' -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d
165 -d optional enables some more debugging (use -dd for even more, if
166 needed). It can be left out if debugging information is not needed.
168 With the alternative mechanism for selecting the interface, this
169 command has identical results in this case:
171 # wpa_supplicant.exe -iAtheros -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d
174 Simple configuration example for WPA-PSK:
183 psk="secret passphrase"
186 (remove '#' from the comment out ap_scan line to enable mode in which
187 wpa_supplicant tries to associate with the SSID without doing
188 scanning; this allows APs with hidden SSIDs to be used)
191 wpa_cli.exe and wpa_gui.exe can be used to interact with the
192 wpa_supplicant.exe program in the same way as with Linux. Note that
193 ctrl_interface is using UNIX domain sockets when built for cygwin, but
194 the native build for Windows uses named pipes and the contents of the
195 ctrl_interface configuration item is used to control access to the
196 interface. Anyway, this variable has to be included in the configuration
197 to enable the control interface.
200 Example SDDL string formats:
202 (local admins group has permission, but nobody else):
204 ctrl_interface=SDDL=D:(A;;GA;;;BA)
206 ("A" == "access allowed", "GA" == GENERIC_ALL == all permissions, and
207 "BA" == "builtin administrators" == the local admins. The empty fields
208 are for flags and object GUIDs, none of which should be required in this
211 (local admins and the local "power users" group have permissions,
214 ctrl_interface=SDDL=D:(A;;GA;;;BA)(A;;GA;;;PU)
216 (One ACCESS_ALLOWED ACE for GENERIC_ALL for builtin administrators, and
217 one ACCESS_ALLOWED ACE for GENERIC_ALL for power users.)
219 (close to wide open, but you have to be a valid user on
222 ctrl_interface=SDDL=D:(A;;GA;;;AU)
224 (One ACCESS_ALLOWED ACE for GENERIC_ALL for the "authenticated users"
227 This one would allow absolutely everyone (including anonymous
228 users) -- this is *not* recommended, since named pipes can be attached
229 to from anywhere on the network (i.e. there's no "this machine only"
230 like there is with 127.0.0.1 sockets):
232 ctrl_interface=SDDL=D:(A;;GA;;;BU)(A;;GA;;;AN)
234 (BU == "builtin users", "AN" == "anonymous")
236 See also [1] for the format of ACEs, and [2] for the possible strings
237 that can be used for principal names.
240 http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/secauthz/security/ace_strings.asp
242 http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/secauthz/security/sid_strings.asp
245 Starting wpa_supplicant as a Windows service (wpasvc.exe)
246 ---------------------------------------------------------
248 wpa_supplicant can be started as a Windows service by using wpasvc.exe
249 program that is alternative build of wpa_supplicant.exe. Most of the
250 core functionality of wpasvc.exe is identical to wpa_supplicant.exe,
251 but it is using Windows registry for configuration information instead
252 of a text file and command line parameters. In addition, it can be
253 registered as a service that can be started automatically or manually
254 like any other Windows service.
256 The root of wpa_supplicant configuration in registry is
257 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\wpa_supplicant. This level includes global
258 parameters and a 'interfaces' subkey with all the interface configuration
259 (adapter to confname mapping). Each such mapping is a subkey that has
260 'adapter', 'config', and 'ctrl_interface' values.
262 This program can be run either as a normal command line application,
263 e.g., for debugging, with 'wpasvc.exe app' or as a Windows service.
264 Service need to be registered with 'wpasvc.exe reg <full path to
265 wpasvc.exe>'. Alternatively, 'wpasvc.exe reg' can be used to register
266 the service with the current location of wpasvc.exe. After this, wpasvc
267 can be started like any other Windows service (e.g., 'net start wpasvc')
268 or it can be configured to start automatically through the Services tool
269 in administrative tasks. The service can be unregistered with
272 If the service is set to start during system bootup to make the
273 network connection available before any user has logged in, there may
274 be a long (half a minute or so) delay in starting up wpa_supplicant
275 due to WinPcap needing a driver called "Network Monitor Driver" which
276 is started by default on demand.
278 To speed up wpa_supplicant start during system bootup, "Network
279 Monitor Driver" can be configured to be started sooner by setting its
280 startup type to System instead of the default Demand. To do this, open
281 up Device Manager, select Show Hidden Devices, expand the "Non
282 Plug-and-Play devices" branch, double click "Network Monitor Driver",
283 go to the Driver tab, and change the Demand setting to System instead.
285 Configuration data is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\wpa_supplicant\configs
286 key. Each configuration profile has its own key under this. In terms of text
287 files, each profile would map to a separate text file with possibly multiple
288 networks. Under each profile, there is a networks key that lists all
289 networks as a subkey. Each network has set of values in the same way as
290 network block in the configuration file. In addition, blobs subkey has
291 possible blobs as values.
293 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\wpa_supplicant\configs\test\networks\0000
297 See win_example.reg for an example on how to setup wpasvc.exe
298 parameters in registry. It can also be imported to registry as a
299 starting point for the configuration.