WPA_CLI(8) BSD System Manager's Manual WPA_CLI(8)NAMEwpa_cli — text-based frontend program for interacting with wpa_supplicant
SYNOPSISwpa_cli [commands]
DESCRIPTION
The wpa_cli utility is a text-based frontend program for interacting with
wpa_supplicant(8). It is used to query current status, change configura‐
tion, trigger events, and request interactive user input.
The wpa_cli utility can show the current authentication status, selected
security mode, dot11 and dot1x MIBs, etc. In addition, wpa_cli can con‐
figure EAPOL state machine parameters and trigger events such as reasso‐
ciation and IEEE 802.1X logoff/logon.
The wpa_cli utility provides an interface to supply authentication infor‐
mation such as username and password when it is not provided in the
wpa_supplicant.conf(5) configuration file. This can be used, for exam‐
ple, to implement one-time passwords or generic token card authentication
where the authentication is based on a challenge-response that uses an
external device for generating the response.
The wpa_cli utility supports two modes: interactive and command line.
Both modes share the same command set and the main difference is in
interactive mode providing access to unsolicited messages (event mes‐
sages, username/password requests).
Interactive mode is started when wpa_cli is executed without any parame‐
ters on the command line. Commands are then entered from the controlling
terminal in response to the wpa_cli prompt. In command line mode, the
same commands are entered as command line arguments.
The control interface of wpa_supplicant(8) can be configured to allow
non-root user access by using the ctrl_interface_group parameter in the
wpa_supplicant.conf(5) configuration file. This makes it possible to run
wpa_cli with a normal user account.
AUTHENTICATION PARAMETERS
When wpa_supplicant(8) needs authentication parameters, such as username
and password, that are not present in the configuration file, it sends a
request message to all attached frontend programs, e.g., wpa_cli in
interactive mode. The wpa_cli utility shows these requests with a
“CTRL-REQ-⟨type⟩-⟨id⟩:⟨text⟩” prefix, where ⟨type⟩ is IDENTITY, PASSWORD,
or OTP (One-Time Password), ⟨id⟩ is a unique identifier for the current
network, ⟨text⟩ is a description of the request. In the case of an OTP
(One-Time Password) request, it includes the challenge from the authenti‐
cation server.
A user must supply wpa_supplicant(8) the needed parameters in response to
these requests.
For example,
CTRL-REQ-PASSWORD-1:Password needed for SSID foobar
> password 1 mysecretpassword
Example request for generic token card challenge-response:
CTRL-REQ-OTP-2:Challenge 1235663 needed for SSID foobar
> otp 2 9876
COMMANDS
The following commands may be supplied on the command line or at a prompt
when operating interactively.
status Report the current WPA/EAPOL/EAP status for the current inter‐
face.
mib Report MIB variables (dot1x, dot11) for the current interface.
help Show usage help.
interface [ifname]
Show available interfaces and/or set the current interface when
multiple are available.
level debug_level
Change the debugging level in wpa_supplicant(8). Larger numbers
generate more messages.
license
Display the full license for wpa_cli.
logoff Send the IEEE 802.1X EAPOL state machine into the “logoff” state.
logon Send the IEEE 802.1X EAPOL state machine into the “logon” state.
set [settings]
Set variables. When no arguments are supplied, the known vari‐
ables and their settings are displayed.
pmksa Show the contents of the PMKSA cache.
reassociate
Force a reassociation to the current access point.
reconfigure
Force wpa_supplicant(8) to re-read its configuration file.
preauthenticate BSSID
Force preauthentication of the specified BSSID.
identity network_id identity
Configure an identity for an SSID.
password network_id password
Configure a password for an SSID.
otp network_id password
Configure a one-time password for an SSID.
terminate
Force wpa_supplicant(8) to terminate.
quit Exit wpa_cli.
SEE ALSOwpa_supplicant.conf(5), wpa_supplicant(8)HISTORY
The wpa_cli utility first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.
AUTHORS
The wpa_cli utility was written by Jouni Malinen ⟨j@w1.fi⟩. This manual
page is derived from the README file included in the wpa_supplicant dis‐
tribution.
BSD June 16, 2005 BSD
