CISSP Guide to Wi-Fi Security: WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA3 and Authentication

Summary

A CISSP study guide explains Wi-Fi security standards and authentication options, comparing WEP through WPA3, PSK, SAE and Enterprise/802.1X, and clarifying the limits of MAC filtering and captive portals.

Key points

• The article distinguishes Wi-Fi encryption standards from authentication methods, which are combined to describe a network’s security.
• It characterizes WEP as broken, WPA/TKIP as weak, WPA2/CCMP as a baseline, and WPA3 as the preferred standard.
• WPA2-PSK uses a shared password and can be vulnerable to offline guessing if the password is weak.
• WPA3-SAE is presented as protecting against offline password attacks and providing forward secrecy.
• Enterprise/802.1X authentication uses individual credentials and backend infrastructure such as a RADIUS server, making it suited to corporate networks.
• MAC filtering can be bypassed through address spoofing and is not a substitute for encryption.
• Captive portals control access to internet services but do not secure the underlying wireless traffic.

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