HOWTO: Wireless Security - WPA1, WPA2, LEAP, etc.

[omer.qadir]

Hi omer.qadir,

While probably not relevant to your situation, several of us have discovered network manager is writing the wrong information in the keys and we have corrected it with gconf editor. We also have noticed that NM will rewrite those keys if it is invoked ie edit connections. On the off chance it's somehow related to your problem:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1010650

Hey Favux,

Thanks for that. Thats not a bad idea. My problem may well be related. I'll look into it and post back here if it helps.
Sincerely
Omer

[PCDoc]

Hi there, I have a problem that I've tried resolving for myself and with helpful posts from dmizer in another thread.
I've been on this now for about a week (which makes me wonder if it's worth it lol).

Basically, after a lot of struggling, I managed to get wpa_supplicant to connect to the internet after a fashion.

What's happening is this:

My wifi access point is WPA2-TKIP and usually has the SSID hidden.
I couldn't connect with a hidden ssid so I set it to show SSID.

Now, I've followed the guide at the start of this thread as dmizer suggested and have rebooted and what happens when you reboot is about halfway through boot up, it slows down and looks for DHCPREQUEST and finds nothing.

So when ubuntu is booted I tried running this in terminal:

sudo wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0 dhclinet wlan0

but it tells me there is another instance of wpa_supplicant running in var/run and it may not have terminated correctly.

So I go to var/run and in there is a wpa_supplicant folder and a file called wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid

So in terminal I kill the process id and then run

sudo wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0 dhclinet wlan0

which then runs and I get internet.

I cant understand what's going on.

here is my wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
#ap_scan=1

network={
       ssid="myssidhere"
       scan_ssid=1
       proto=RSN
       key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
       pairwise=CCMP TKIP
       group=CCMP TKIP
       psk="mypasskey"
}

and here is my interfaces file

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid myssidhere
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto RSN
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk 8b79c14a1311970##############################
pre-up wpa_supplicant -Dwext -wlan0 -BW -c/etc/wpa_supplicant wpa_supplicant.conf post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

If anyone can shed some light on why the wireless conenction is not starting and connecting properly when ubuntu starts up, please share =)

Many thanks,

(A slightly bauld from hair pulling) Mike.

EDIT: The reason I'm doing things this way is:
A) I need WPA2-TKIP security and
B) NetworkManager does not let me run lan and wifi connections together which I need to do to share the internet that comes in via the wireless to other computers via the lan connection.

So far I haven't even gotten to the lan side of things yet, I'm still trying to get a stable WPA2-TKIP connection that starts up and connects automatically when Ubuntu does.

Incidentally, I have followed the start up script that was posted in post #2 at the start of this thread.

Thanks again.

I'm totally new to linux other than accessing a web server through shell so I only know a little.
This ubuntu box has been built to act as a secured gateway ICS box.

Basically I have a wireless router downstairs which the ubuntu box (located upstairs) is supposed to connect to via a PCI wireless card.
This internet conenction should then go to the ubuntu box's on board ethernet and then from there to a wired router to disperse the internet to any computer connected to that router.

I wanted to use ubuntu as a secured gateway and file server and chose linux rather than windows due to linux being more secure.
I repair and maintain PC's and any I need to connect to the internet, I wanted to do it as securely as possible to protect any sensitive data that may or may not be on those machines.

[PCDoc]

Anyone???
I don't mean to stress but I could do with some help on this rather urgently.

Been at it a week and getting no where fast.

I'm open to any suggestions anyone might have that may help.

Thanks, Mike.

[wieman01]

PCDoc,

Please try this (leave out the last line of your settings):

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid myssidhere
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto RSN
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk 8b79c14a1311970##############################

Then reboot and do a:

sudo ifdown -v wlan0
sudo ifup -v wlan0

Please post the output message.

Have you also tried to use a static IP address? I have seen such DHCP issues before.

[PCDoc]

Many thanks for replying wieman01.

Ok, did as you suggested with the last line of the interfaces file.
I also assigned a static address, gateway, subnet etc as you suggested.

I rebooted.

At start up ubuntu slowed down about halfway in again and I could see DHCP Client by Internet Consortium then it issued DHCPRELEASE and dropped the static IP I gave it in interfaces file.

It then began to DHCPDISCOVER again looking at 255.255.255.255 on port 67,
Found nothing and went sleep.

Ubuntu booted up and I Checked and there was no internet connection so I issued the commands you told me to.

Here are the results:

sudo ifdown -v wlan0

Configuring interface wlan0=wlan0 (inet)

run-parts --verbose /etc/network/if-down.d

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-down.d/avahi-autoipd

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-down.d/wpasupplicant

dhclient3 -r -pf /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.wlan0.leases wlan0

There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid with pid 4568

killed old client process, removed PID file

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.1

Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.

All rights reserved.

For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/



wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:a1:b0:90:0b:b9

Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:a1:b0:90:0b:b9

Sending on   Socket/fallback

DHCPRELEASE on wlan0 to 192.168.123.1 port 67

ifconfig wlan0 down

run-parts --verbose /etc/network/if-post-down.d

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-post-down.d/avahi-daemon

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-post-down.d/wireless-tools

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-post-down.d/wpasupplicant

wpa_supplicant: terminating wpa_supplicant daemon via pidfile /var/run/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid

Stopped /sbin/wpa_supplicant (pid 4533).

wpa_supplicant: removing /lib/init/rw/sendsigs.omit.d/wpasupplicant.wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid

sudo ifup -v wlan0

Configuring interface wlan0=wlan0 (inet)

run-parts --verbose /etc/network/if-pre-up.d

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wireless-tools

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant

wpa_supplicant: wpa-driver wext

wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -P /var/run/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -D wext -q -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.log -C /var/run/wpa_supplicant

Starting /sbin/wpa_supplicant...

wpa_supplicant: creating sendsigs omission pidfile: /lib/init/rw/sendsigs.omit.d/wpasupplicant.wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid

wpa_supplicant: ctrl_interface socket located at /var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0

wpa_supplicant: wpa-ap-scan 1 -- OK

wpa_supplicant: configuring network block -- 0

wpa_supplicant: wpa-ssid "IcArUsNeT" -- OK

wpa_supplicant: wpa-psk ***** -- OK

wpa_supplicant: wpa-pairwise CCMP -- OK

wpa_supplicant: wpa-group CCMP -- OK

wpa_supplicant: wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK -- OK

wpa_supplicant: wpa-proto RSN -- OK

wpa_supplicant: enabling network block 0 -- OK



dhclient3 -e IF_METRIC=100 -pf /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.wlan0.leases wlan0

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.1

Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.

All rights reserved.

For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/



wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:a1:b0:90:0b:b9

Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:a1:b0:90:0b:b9

Sending on   Socket/fallback

DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8

DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10

DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 21

DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 18

DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4

No DHCPOFFERS received.

No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

run-parts --verbose /etc/network/if-up.d

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-autoipd

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-daemon

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-up.d/mountnfs

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate

run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant

So still no internet, so I again I ran

sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

which told me another instance of wpa_supplicant was running.

ctrl_iface exists and seems to be in use - cannot override it
Delete '/var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0' manually if it is not used anymore
Failed to initialize control interface '/var/run/wpa_supplicant'.
You may have another wpa_supplicant process already running or the file was
left by an unclean termination of wpa_supplicant in which case you will need
to manually remove this file before starting wpa_supplicant again.

I terminated the process ID and ran that command again which game me this:

CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Trying to associate with 00:06:4f:61:2b:22 (SSID='IcArUsNeT' freq=2412 MHz)
Associated with 00:06:4f:61:2b:22
WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:06:4f:61:2b:22 [PTK=TKIP GTK=TKIP]
CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:06:4f:61:2b:22 completed (auth) [id=0 id_str=]
WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:06:4f:61:2b:22 [GTK=TKIP]

And the internet connected.
But it's not after rebooting.

Also fter rebooting I removed the SH start up script that was mentioned in post #2 of this thread and now it no longer does the DHCPRELEASE and DHCDISCOVER thing at boot up which I thought was interfering (I may be wrong and can easily put it back).

However, I can't get internet anymore.
I tried terminating the PID of the already running wpa_supplicant and running the wpa_suplicant command above and I get nothing.

It just repeats CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS in the terminal window.

Now I'm really confoooosed.
I hope I have provided all the info and more that you requested.
I have tried to be detailed and methodical to help you to help me.

Many many thanks Mike.

[wieman01]

You should not have to run:

sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

...if you configure WPA using the "interface" configuration file. Either one is enough.

Could you post the contents of "interfaces" after enabling it to use a static IP address? It's still trying to get an address via DHCP and that is odd.

[PCDoc]

Hi again weimoan01,

Sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I've not been around and so haven't been working on the server.

Please find a copy and paste of my interfaces file:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
address 192.168.123.40
gateway 192.168.123.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.123.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid IcArUsNeT
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto RSN
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk 8b79c14a1311970a6fec1578326753b80f62c885dd8b5c5c227148d81c73f8c8

This is exactly as it sits.
As previously mentioned, my SSID was hidden, but I set it to broadcast while getting this working.

Ideally, if we get this resolved, I'd like it to go back to being hidden if possible.

Thanks again, your continued support is extremely valued!

Mike.

[holotropik]

Thank you! thread number 50 solved my problem...now i get wireless connection after boot-up.
Cheers

[wieman01]

PCDoc,

Try this instead and post back please:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.123.40
gateway 192.168.123.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.123.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid IcArUsNeT
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto RSN
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk 8b79c14a1311970a6fec1578326753b80f62c885dd8b5c5c22 7148d81c73f8c8

[PCDoc]

Wow, I can't beleive I missed that..
Still set to DHCP instead of static.. My brain must be fried lol.

I changed it to static, but still the same.
No internet.