Score:0

WPA3 Personal auth_alg value in journal

gb flag

my question is about WPA3 on 20.04 and the corresponding journal output for the NetworkManager.

When I connect to a WPA3 Personal network, I see the following lines:

key_mgmt sae ft-sae (which is ok)
auth_alg open

The part open confuses me, since the info I can find describes open only with the old WEP Nevertheless the wpa_supplicant.conf states that if auth_alg is not set, the default is OPEN with LEAP enabled if set.

# auth_alg: list of allowed IEEE 802.11 authentication algorithms
# OPEN = Open System authentication (required for WPA/WPA2)
# SHARED = Shared Key authentication (requires static WEP keys)
# LEAP = LEAP/Network EAP (only used with LEAP)
# If not set, automatic selection is used (Open System with LEAP enabled if
# LEAP is allowed as one of the EAP methods).

When I check the wpa_cli output for the corresponding device with

wpa_cli -i DEV status

I see the following output:

key_mgmt=SAE
pmf=1
mgmt_group_cipher=BIP
sae_group=19
wpa_state=complete
ieee80211ac=1

Which leads me to the conclusion that the WPA3 connection was correctly established, also the AP shows the device as WPA3 connected device.

The point I don't get and what concerns me is, why auth_alg open appears in NetworkManager for WPA3, which is in fact not present with WPA2.

Side info:

  • Connection was purely setup with GUI, no modification on .confs
  • Behaviour can be seen on mulitple connections with WPA3 APs
  • Used Kernel 5.13

Any suggestions or experiences from your side? Same behaviour?

Thank you for any help or experience from your side!

Score:0
br flag

See the page and search for word "open" here: https://www.netspotapp.com/blog/wifi-security/what-is-wpa3.html

I think you can be calm concerning OPEN algorithm. It is OK.

mangohost

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.