(In)Secure Configuration Practices of WPA2 Enterprise Supplicants

TL;DR

This paper investigates the security risks associated with WPA2 Enterprise supplicant configurations, revealing widespread misconfigurations that undermine the protocol's security assumptions through surveys and analysis of configuration guides.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of real-world WPA2 Enterprise supplicant configurations, highlighting systemic misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities.

Findings

Many users and technicians are unaware of configuration risks.

Widespread misconfigurations violate WPA2 Enterprise security assumptions.

Configuration guides often lack adequate security guidance.

Abstract

WPA2 Enterprise is a fundamental technology for secure communication in enterprise wireless networks. A key requirement of this technology is that WiFi-enabled devices (i.e., supplicants) be correctly configured before connecting to the enterprise wireless network. Supplicants that are not configured correctly may fall prey of attacks aimed at stealing the network credentials very easily. Such credentials have an enormous value because they usually unlock access to all enterprise services. In this work we investigate whether users and technicians are aware of these important and widespread risks. We conducted two extensive analyses: a survey among approximately 1000 users about how they configured their WiFi devices for enterprise network access; and, a review of approximately 310 network configuration guides made available by enterprise network administrators. The results provide strong indications that the key requirement of WPA2 Enterprise is violated systematically and thus can no longer be considered realistic.