Appendix D Wireless LANs

NWA1100-N User’s Guide

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EAP-MD5 (Message-Digest Algorithm 5)

MD5 authentication is the simplest one-way authentication method. The authentication server 
sends a challenge to the wireless client. The wireless client ‘proves’ that it knows the password by 
encrypting the password with the challenge and sends back the information. Password is not sent in 
plain text. 

However, MD5 authentication has some weaknesses. Since the authentication server needs to get 
the plaintext passwords, the passwords must be stored. Thus someone other than the 
authentication server may access the password file. In addition, it is possible to impersonate an 
authentication server as MD5 authentication method does not perform mutual authentication. 
Finally, MD5 authentication method does not support data encryption with dynamic session key. You 
must configure WEP encryption keys for data encryption. 

EAP-TLS (Transport Layer Security)

With EAP-TLS, digital certifications are needed by both the server and the wireless clients for 
mutual authentication. The server presents a certificate to the client. After validating the identity of 
the server, the client sends a different certificate to the server. The exchange of certificates is done 
in the open before a secured tunnel is created. This makes user identity vulnerable to passive 
attacks. A digital certificate is an electronic ID card that authenticates the sender’s identity. 
However, to implement EAP-TLS, you need a Certificate Authority (CA) to handle certificates, which 
imposes a management overhead. 

EAP-TTLS (Tunneled Transport Layer Service) 

EAP-TTLS is an extension of the EAP-TLS authentication that uses certificates for only the server-
side authentications to establish a secure connection. Client authentication is then done by sending 
username and password through the secure connection, thus client identity is protected. For client 
authentication, EAP-TTLS supports EAP methods and legacy authentication methods such as PAP, 
CHAP, MS-CHAP and MS-CHAP v2. 

PEAP (Protected EAP)   

Like EAP-TTLS, server-side certificate authentication is used to establish a secure connection, then 
use simple username and password methods through the secured connection to authenticate the 
clients, thus hiding client identity. However, PEAP only supports EAP methods, such as EAP-MD5, 
EAP-MSCHAPv2 and EAP-GTC (EAP-Generic Token Card), for client authentication. EAP-GTC is 
implemented only by Cisco.

LEAP

LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol) is a Cisco implementation of IEEE 802.1x. 

Dynamic WEP Key Exchange

The AP maps a unique key that is generated with the RADIUS server. This key expires when the 
wireless connection times out, disconnects or reauthentication times out. A new WEP key is 
generated each time reauthentication is performed.