]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/hostap.git/blob - wpa_supplicant/doc/docbook/wpa_supplicant.sgml
Update copyright notices for the new year 2015
[thirdparty/hostap.git] / wpa_supplicant / doc / docbook / wpa_supplicant.sgml
1 <!doctype refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN">
2
3 <refentry>
4 <refmeta>
5 <refentrytitle>wpa_supplicant</refentrytitle>
6 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
7 </refmeta>
8 <refnamediv>
9 <refname>wpa_supplicant</refname>
10 <refpurpose>Wi-Fi Protected Access client and IEEE 802.1X supplicant</refpurpose>
11 </refnamediv>
12 <refsynopsisdiv>
13 <cmdsynopsis>
14 <command>wpa_supplicant</command>
15 <arg>-BddfhKLqqsTtuvW</arg>
16 <arg>-i<replaceable>ifname</replaceable></arg>
17 <arg>-c<replaceable>config file</replaceable></arg>
18 <arg>-D<replaceable>driver</replaceable></arg>
19 <arg>-P<replaceable>PID_file</replaceable></arg>
20 <arg>-f<replaceable>output file</replaceable></arg>
21 </cmdsynopsis>
22 </refsynopsisdiv>
23 <refsect1>
24 <title>Overview</title>
25
26 <para>
27 Wireless networks do not require physical access to the network equipment
28 in the same way as wired networks. This makes it easier for unauthorized
29 users to passively monitor a network and capture all transmitted frames.
30 In addition, unauthorized use of the network is much easier. In many cases,
31 this can happen even without user's explicit knowledge since the wireless
32 LAN adapter may have been configured to automatically join any available
33 network.
34 </para>
35
36 <para>
37 Link-layer encryption can be used to provide a layer of security for
38 wireless networks. The original wireless LAN standard, IEEE 802.11,
39 included a simple encryption mechanism, WEP. However, that proved to
40 be flawed in many areas and network protected with WEP cannot be consider
41 secure. IEEE 802.1X authentication and frequently changed dynamic WEP keys
42 can be used to improve the network security, but even that has inherited
43 security issues due to the use of WEP for encryption. Wi-Fi Protected
44 Access and IEEE 802.11i amendment to the wireless LAN standard introduce
45 a much improvement mechanism for securing wireless networks. IEEE 802.11i
46 enabled networks that are using CCMP (encryption mechanism based on strong
47 cryptographic algorithm AES) can finally be called secure used for
48 applications which require efficient protection against unauthorized
49 access.
50 </para>
51
52 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> is an implementation of
53 the WPA Supplicant component, i.e., the part that runs in the
54 client stations. It implements WPA key negotiation with a WPA
55 Authenticator and EAP authentication with Authentication
56 Server. In addition, it controls the roaming and IEEE 802.11
57 authentication/association of the wireless LAN driver.</para>
58
59 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> is designed to be a
60 "daemon" program that runs in the background and acts as the
61 backend component controlling the wireless
62 connection. <command>wpa_supplicant</command> supports separate
63 frontend programs and an example text-based frontend,
64 <command>wpa_cli</command>, is included with
65 wpa_supplicant.</para>
66
67 <para>Before wpa_supplicant can do its work, the network interface
68 must be available. That means that the physical device must be
69 present and enabled, and the driver for the device must be
70 loaded. The daemon will exit immediately if the device is not already
71 available.</para>
72
73 <para>After <command>wpa_supplicant</command> has configured the
74 network device, higher level configuration such as DHCP may
75 proceed. There are a variety of ways to integrate wpa_supplicant
76 into a machine's networking scripts, a few of which are described
77 in sections below.</para>
78
79 <para>The following steps are used when associating with an AP
80 using WPA:</para>
81
82 <itemizedlist>
83 <listitem>
84 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> requests the kernel
85 driver to scan neighboring BSSes</para>
86 </listitem>
87
88 <listitem>
89 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> selects a BSS based on
90 its configuration</para>
91 </listitem>
92
93 <listitem>
94 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> requests the kernel
95 driver to associate with the chosen BSS</para>
96 </listitem>
97
98 <listitem>
99 <para>If WPA-EAP: integrated IEEE 802.1X Supplicant
100 completes EAP authentication with the
101 authentication server (proxied by the Authenticator in the
102 AP)</para>
103 </listitem>
104
105 <listitem>
106 <para>If WPA-EAP: master key is received from the IEEE 802.1X
107 Supplicant</para>
108 </listitem>
109
110 <listitem>
111 <para>If WPA-PSK: <command>wpa_supplicant</command> uses PSK
112 as the master session key</para>
113 </listitem>
114
115 <listitem>
116 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> completes WPA 4-Way
117 Handshake and Group Key Handshake with the Authenticator
118 (AP)</para>
119 </listitem>
120
121 <listitem>
122 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> configures encryption
123 keys for unicast and broadcast</para>
124 </listitem>
125
126 <listitem>
127 <para>normal data packets can be transmitted and received</para>
128 </listitem>
129 </itemizedlist>
130 </refsect1>
131
132 <refsect1>
133 <title>Supported Features</title>
134 <para>Supported WPA/IEEE 802.11i features:</para>
135 <itemizedlist>
136 <listitem>
137 <para>WPA-PSK ("WPA-Personal")</para>
138 </listitem>
139
140 <listitem>
141 <para>WPA with EAP (e.g., with RADIUS authentication server)
142 ("WPA-Enterprise") Following authentication methods are
143 supported with an integrate IEEE 802.1X Supplicant:</para>
144
145 <itemizedlist>
146 <listitem>
147 <para>EAP-TLS</para>
148 </listitem>
149 </itemizedlist>
150
151 <itemizedlist>
152 <listitem>
153 <para>EAP-PEAP/MSCHAPv2 (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)</para>
154 </listitem>
155
156
157 <listitem>
158 <para>EAP-PEAP/TLS (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)</para>
159 </listitem>
160
161 <listitem>
162 <para>EAP-PEAP/GTC (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)</para>
163 </listitem>
164
165 <listitem>
166 <para>EAP-PEAP/OTP (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)</para>
167 </listitem>
168
169 <listitem>
170 <para>EAP-PEAP/MD5-Challenge (both PEAPv0 and PEAPv1)</para>
171 </listitem>
172
173 <listitem>
174 <para>EAP-TTLS/EAP-MD5-Challenge</para>
175 </listitem>
176
177 <listitem>
178 <para>EAP-TTLS/EAP-GTC</para>
179 </listitem>
180
181 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/EAP-OTP</para></listitem>
182
183 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/EAP-MSCHAPv2</para></listitem>
184
185 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/EAP-TLS</para></listitem>
186
187 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/MSCHAPv2</para></listitem>
188
189 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/MSCHAP</para></listitem>
190
191 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/PAP</para></listitem>
192
193 <listitem><para>EAP-TTLS/CHAP</para></listitem>
194
195 <listitem><para>EAP-SIM</para></listitem>
196
197 <listitem><para>EAP-AKA</para></listitem>
198
199 <listitem><para>EAP-PSK</para></listitem>
200
201 <listitem><para>EAP-PAX</para></listitem>
202
203 <listitem><para>LEAP (note: requires special support from
204 the driver for IEEE 802.11 authentication)</para></listitem>
205
206 <listitem><para>(following methods are supported, but since
207 they do not generate keying material, they cannot be used
208 with WPA or IEEE 802.1X WEP keying)</para></listitem>
209
210 <listitem><para>EAP-MD5-Challenge </para></listitem>
211
212 <listitem><para>EAP-MSCHAPv2</para></listitem>
213
214 <listitem><para>EAP-GTC</para></listitem>
215
216 <listitem><para>EAP-OTP</para></listitem>
217 </itemizedlist>
218 </listitem>
219
220 <listitem>
221 <para>key management for CCMP, TKIP, WEP104, WEP40</para>
222 </listitem>
223
224 <listitem>
225 <para>RSN/WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i)</para>
226 <itemizedlist>
227 <listitem>
228 <para>pre-authentication</para>
229 </listitem>
230
231 <listitem>
232 <para>PMKSA caching</para>
233 </listitem>
234 </itemizedlist>
235 </listitem>
236 </itemizedlist>
237 </refsect1>
238
239 <refsect1>
240 <title>Available Drivers</title>
241 <para>A summary of available driver backends is below. Support for each
242 of the driver backends is chosen at wpa_supplicant compile time. For a
243 list of supported driver backends that may be used with the -D option on
244 your system, refer to the help output of wpa_supplicant
245 (<emphasis>wpa_supplicant -h</emphasis>).</para>
246
247 <variablelist>
248 <varlistentry>
249 <term>wext</term>
250 <listitem>
251 <para>Linux wireless extensions (generic).</para>
252 </listitem>
253 </varlistentry>
254
255 <varlistentry>
256 <term>wired</term>
257 <listitem>
258 <para>wpa_supplicant wired Ethernet driver</para>
259 </listitem>
260 </varlistentry>
261
262 <varlistentry>
263 <term>roboswitch</term>
264 <listitem>
265 <para>wpa_supplicant Broadcom switch driver</para>
266 </listitem>
267 </varlistentry>
268
269 <varlistentry>
270 <term>bsd</term>
271 <listitem>
272 <para>BSD 802.11 support (Atheros, etc.).</para>
273 </listitem>
274 </varlistentry>
275
276 <varlistentry>
277 <term>ndis</term>
278 <listitem>
279 <para>Windows NDIS driver.</para>
280 </listitem>
281 </varlistentry>
282 </variablelist>
283 </refsect1>
284
285 <refsect1>
286 <title>Command Line Options</title>
287 <para>Most command line options have global scope. Some are given per
288 interface, and are only valid if at least one <option>-i</option> option
289 is specified, otherwise they're ignored. Option groups for different
290 interfaces must be separated by <option>-N</option> option.</para>
291 <variablelist>
292 <varlistentry>
293 <term>-b br_ifname</term>
294 <listitem>
295 <para>Optional bridge interface name. (Per interface)</para>
296 </listitem>
297 </varlistentry>
298
299 <varlistentry>
300 <term>-B</term>
301 <listitem>
302 <para>Run daemon in the background.</para>
303 </listitem>
304 </varlistentry>
305
306 <varlistentry>
307 <term>-c filename</term>
308 <listitem>
309 <para>Path to configuration file. (Per interface)</para>
310 </listitem>
311 </varlistentry>
312
313 <varlistentry>
314 <term>-C ctrl_interface</term>
315 <listitem>
316 <para>Path to ctrl_interface socket (Per interface. Only used if
317 <option>-c</option> is not).</para>
318 </listitem>
319 </varlistentry>
320
321 <varlistentry>
322 <term>-i ifname</term>
323 <listitem>
324 <para>Interface to listen on. Multiple instances of this option can
325 be present, one per interface, separated by <option>-N</option>
326 option (see below).</para>
327 </listitem>
328 </varlistentry>
329
330 <varlistentry>
331 <term>-d</term>
332 <listitem>
333 <para>Increase debugging verbosity (<option>-dd</option> even
334 more).</para>
335 </listitem>
336 </varlistentry>
337
338 <varlistentry>
339 <term>-D driver</term>
340 <listitem>
341 <para>Driver to use (can be multiple drivers: nl80211,wext).
342 (Per interface, see the available options below.)</para>
343 </listitem>
344 </varlistentry>
345
346 <varlistentry>
347 <term>-e entropy file</term>
348 <listitem>
349 <para>File for <command>wpa_supplicant</command> to use to
350 maintain its internal entropy store in over restarts.</para>
351 </listitem>
352 </varlistentry>
353
354 <varlistentry>
355 <term>-f output file</term>
356 <listitem>
357 <para>Log output to specified file instead of stdout. (This
358 is only available if <command>wpa_supplicant</command> was
359 built with the <literal>CONFIG_DEBUG_FILE</literal>
360 option.)</para>
361 </listitem>
362 </varlistentry>
363
364 <varlistentry>
365 <term>-g global ctrl_interface</term>
366 <listitem>
367 <para>Path to global ctrl_interface socket. If specified, interface
368 definitions may be omitted.</para>
369 </listitem>
370 </varlistentry>
371
372 <varlistentry>
373 <term>-K</term>
374 <listitem>
375 <para>Include keys (passwords, etc.) in debug output.</para>
376 </listitem>
377 </varlistentry>
378
379 <varlistentry>
380 <term>-t</term>
381 <listitem>
382 <para>Include timestamp in debug messages.</para>
383 </listitem>
384 </varlistentry>
385
386 <varlistentry>
387 <term>-h</term>
388 <listitem>
389 <para>Help. Show a usage message.</para>
390 </listitem>
391 </varlistentry>
392
393 <varlistentry>
394 <term>-L</term>
395 <listitem>
396 <para>Show license (BSD).</para>
397 </listitem>
398 </varlistentry>
399
400 <varlistentry>
401 <term>-o override driver</term>
402 <listitem>
403 <para>Override the driver parameter for new
404 interfaces.</para>
405 </listitem>
406 </varlistentry>
407
408 <varlistentry>
409 <term>-O override ctrl_interface</term>
410 <listitem>
411 <para>Override the ctrl_interface parameter for new
412 interfaces.</para>
413 </listitem>
414 </varlistentry>
415
416 <varlistentry>
417 <term>-p</term>
418 <listitem>
419 <para>Driver parameters. (Per interface)</para>
420 </listitem>
421 </varlistentry>
422
423 <varlistentry>
424 <term>-P PID_file</term>
425 <listitem>
426 <para>Path to PID file.</para>
427 </listitem>
428 </varlistentry>
429
430 <varlistentry>
431 <term>-q</term>
432 <listitem>
433 <para>Decrease debugging verbosity (<option>-qq</option> even
434 less).</para>
435 </listitem>
436 </varlistentry>
437
438 <varlistentry>
439 <term>-s</term>
440 <listitem>
441 <para>Log output to syslog instead of stdout. (This is only
442 available if <command>wpa_supplicant</command> was built
443 with the <literal>CONFIG_DEBUG_SYSLOG</literal>
444 option.)</para>
445 </listitem>
446 </varlistentry>
447
448 <varlistentry>
449 <term>-T</term>
450 <listitem>
451 <para>Log output to Linux tracing in addition to any other
452 destinations. (This is only available
453 if <command>wpa_supplicant</command> was built with
454 the <literal>CONFIG_DEBUG_LINUX_TRACING</literal>
455 option.)</para>
456 </listitem>
457 </varlistentry>
458
459 <varlistentry>
460 <term>-t</term>
461 <listitem>
462 <para>Include timestamp in debug messages.</para>
463 </listitem>
464 </varlistentry>
465
466 <varlistentry>
467 <term>-u</term>
468 <listitem>
469 <para>Enable DBus control interface. If enabled, interface
470 definitions may be omitted. (This is only available
471 if <command>wpa_supplicant</command> was built with
472 the <literal>CONFIG_DBUS</literal> option.)</para>
473 </listitem>
474 </varlistentry>
475
476 <varlistentry>
477 <term>-v</term>
478 <listitem>
479 <para>Show version.</para>
480 </listitem>
481 </varlistentry>
482
483 <varlistentry>
484 <term>-W</term>
485 <listitem>
486 <para>Wait for a control interface monitor before starting.</para>
487 </listitem>
488 </varlistentry>
489
490 <varlistentry>
491 <term>-N</term>
492 <listitem>
493 <para>Start describing new interface.</para>
494 </listitem>
495 </varlistentry>
496 </variablelist>
497 </refsect1>
498
499 <refsect1>
500 <title>Examples</title>
501
502 <para>In most common cases, <command>wpa_supplicant</command> is
503 started with:</para>
504
505 <blockquote><programlisting>
506 wpa_supplicant -B -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0
507 </programlisting></blockquote>
508
509 <para>This makes the process fork into background.</para>
510
511 <para>The easiest way to debug problems, and to get debug log for
512 bug reports, is to start <command>wpa_supplicant</command> on
513 foreground with debugging enabled:</para>
514
515 <blockquote><programlisting>
516 wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0 -d
517 </programlisting></blockquote>
518
519 <para>If the specific driver wrapper is not known beforehand, it is
520 possible to specify multiple comma separated driver wrappers on the command
521 line. <command>wpa_supplicant</command> will use the first driver
522 wrapper that is able to initialize the interface.</para>
523
524 <blockquote><programlisting>
525 wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211,wext -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0
526 </programlisting></blockquote>
527
528 <para><command>wpa_supplicant</command> can control multiple
529 interfaces (radios) either by running one process for each
530 interface separately or by running just one process and list of
531 options at command line. Each interface is separated with -N
532 argument. As an example, following command would start
533 wpa_supplicant for two interfaces:</para>
534
535 <blockquote><programlisting>
536 wpa_supplicant \
537 -c wpa1.conf -i wlan0 -D nl80211 -N \
538 -c wpa2.conf -i ath0 -D wext
539 </programlisting></blockquote>
540 </refsect1>
541
542 <refsect1>
543 <title>OS Requirements</title>
544 <para>Current hardware/software requirements:</para>
545
546 <itemizedlist>
547 <listitem>
548 <para>Linux kernel 2.4.x or 2.6.x with Linux Wireless
549 Extensions v15 or newer</para>
550 </listitem>
551
552
553 <listitem>
554 <para>FreeBSD 6-CURRENT</para>
555 </listitem>
556
557 <listitem>
558 <para>Microsoft Windows with WinPcap (at least WinXP, may work
559 with other versions)</para>
560 </listitem>
561 </itemizedlist>
562 </refsect1>
563
564 <refsect1>
565 <title>Supported Drivers</title>
566 <variablelist>
567 <varlistentry>
568 <term>Linux wireless extensions</term>
569 <listitem>
570 <para>In theory, any driver that supports Linux wireless
571 extensions can be used with IEEE 802.1X (i.e., not WPA) when
572 using ap_scan=0 option in configuration file.</para>
573 </listitem>
574 </varlistentry>
575
576 <varlistentry>
577 <term>Wired Ethernet drivers</term>
578 <listitem>
579 <para>Use ap_scan=0.</para>
580 </listitem>
581 </varlistentry>
582
583 <varlistentry>
584 <term>BSD net80211 layer (e.g., Atheros driver)</term>
585 <listitem>
586 <para>At the moment, this is for FreeBSD 6-CURRENT branch.</para>
587 </listitem>
588 </varlistentry>
589
590 <varlistentry>
591 <term>Windows NDIS</term>
592 <listitem>
593 <para>The current Windows port requires WinPcap
594 (http://winpcap.polito.it/). See README-Windows.txt for more
595 information.</para>
596 </listitem>
597 </varlistentry>
598 </variablelist>
599
600
601 <para>wpa_supplicant was designed to be portable for different
602 drivers and operating systems. Hopefully, support for more wlan
603 cards and OSes will be added in the future. See developer.txt for
604 more information about the design of wpa_supplicant and porting to
605 other drivers. One main goal is to add full WPA/WPA2 support to
606 Linux wireless extensions to allow new drivers to be supported
607 without having to implement new driver-specific interface code in
608 wpa_supplicant.</para>
609 </refsect1>
610
611 <refsect1>
612 <title>Architecture</title> <para>The
613 <command>wpa_supplicant</command> system consists of the following
614 components:</para>
615
616 <variablelist>
617 <varlistentry>
618 <term><filename>wpa_supplicant.conf</filename> </term>
619 <listitem>
620 <para>the configuration file describing all networks that the
621 user wants the computer to connect to. </para>
622 </listitem>
623 </varlistentry>
624 <varlistentry>
625 <term><command>wpa_supplicant</command></term>
626 <listitem><para>the program that directly interacts with the
627 network interface. </para></listitem>
628 </varlistentry>
629 <varlistentry>
630 <term><command>wpa_cli</command></term> <listitem><para> the
631 client program that provides a high-level interface to the
632 functionality of the daemon. </para></listitem>
633 </varlistentry>
634 <varlistentry>
635 <term><command>wpa_passphrase</command></term>
636 <listitem><para>a utility needed to construct
637 <filename>wpa_supplicant.conf</filename> files that include
638 encrypted passwords.</para></listitem>
639 </varlistentry>
640 </variablelist>
641 </refsect1>
642
643 <refsect1>
644 <title>Quick Start</title>
645
646 <para>First, make a configuration file, e.g.
647 <filename>/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf</filename>, that describes the networks
648 you are interested in. See <citerefentry>
649 <refentrytitle>wpa_supplicant.conf</refentrytitle>
650 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
651 </citerefentry>
652 for details.</para>
653
654 <para>Once the configuration is ready, you can test whether the
655 configuration works by running <command>wpa_supplicant</command>
656 with following command to start it on foreground with debugging
657 enabled:</para>
658
659 <blockquote><programlisting>
660 wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -d
661 </programlisting></blockquote>
662
663 <para>Assuming everything goes fine, you can start using following
664 command to start <command>wpa_supplicant</command> on background
665 without debugging:</para>
666
667 <blockquote><programlisting>
668 wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
669 </programlisting></blockquote>
670
671 <para>Please note that if you included more than one driver
672 interface in the build time configuration (.config), you may need
673 to specify which interface to use by including -D&lt;driver
674 name&gt; option on the command line.</para>
675
676 <!-- XXX at this point, the page could include a little script
677 based on wpa_cli to wait for a connection and then run
678 dhclient -->
679
680 </refsect1>
681
682 <refsect1>
683 <title>Interface to pcmcia-cs/cardmrg</title>
684
685 <para>For example, following small changes to pcmcia-cs scripts
686 can be used to enable WPA support:</para>
687
688 <para>Add MODE="Managed" and WPA="y" to the network scheme in
689 <filename>/etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts</filename>.</para>
690
691 <para>Add the following block to the end of <emphasis>start</emphasis>
692 action handler in <filename>/etc/pcmcia/wireless</filename>:</para>
693
694 <blockquote><programlisting>
695 if [ "$WPA" = "y" -a -x /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant ]; then
696 /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant -B -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -i$DEVICE
697 fi
698 </programlisting></blockquote>
699
700
701 <para>Add the following block to the end of <emphasis>stop</emphasis>
702 action handler (may need to be separated from other actions) in
703 <filename>/etc/pcmcia/wireless</filename>:</para>
704
705 <blockquote><programlisting>
706 if [ "$WPA" = "y" -a -x /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant ]; then
707 killall wpa_supplicant
708 fi
709 </programlisting></blockquote>
710
711 <para>This will make <command>cardmgr</command> start
712 <command>wpa_supplicant</command> when the card is plugged
713 in.</para>
714 </refsect1>
715
716 <refsect1>
717 <title>See Also</title>
718 <para>
719 <citerefentry>
720 <refentrytitle>wpa_background</refentrytitle>
721 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
722 </citerefentry>
723 <citerefentry>
724 <refentrytitle>wpa_supplicant.conf</refentrytitle>
725 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
726 </citerefentry>
727 <citerefentry>
728 <refentrytitle>wpa_cli</refentrytitle>
729 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
730 </citerefentry>
731 <citerefentry>
732 <refentrytitle>wpa_passphrase</refentrytitle>
733 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
734 </citerefentry>
735 </para>
736 </refsect1>
737 <refsect1>
738 <title>Legal</title>
739 <para>wpa_supplicant is copyright (c) 2003-2015,
740 Jouni Malinen <email>j@w1.fi</email> and
741 contributors.
742 All Rights Reserved.</para>
743
744 <para>This program is licensed under the BSD license (the one with
745 advertisement clause removed).</para>
746 </refsect1>
747 </refentry>