The 802.11 standard introduced the WEP (wired Equivalent Privacy) in the very first 802.11 standard as a means of providing security for WLAN packet transmissions. The WEP security as the name suggests was supposed to provide frame protection equivalent to a Wired Network.
The WEP Encryption method provided two types of Encryption keys
- Default WEP keys
- Key-Mapping Keys
Default WEP keys
WEP provided 4 default keys which would be configured into a 4 location array. The 4 location array is termed as dot11WEPDefaultKeys. The key selected for data traffic encryption is via a Key Index which is also sent in the data frame. The receiver would look at the Key index and retrieve the appropriate key from the array for decryption of the received frame.
The WEP Encryption mechanism depends on the knowledge of a secret key known a-priori between the transmitter and Receiver. The key is configured into one of the default key array locations. Here is a sample configuration of WEP keys on a linksys router. (NOTE : never use WEP Encryption at home – always set to WPA2-PSK)
