WPA_SUPPLICANT.CONF(5) BSD File Formats Manual WPA_SUPPLICANT.CONF(5)NAMEwpa_supplicant.conf — configuration file for wpa_supplicant(8)DESCRIPTION
The wpa_supplicant(8) utility is an implementation of the WPA Supplicant
component, i.e., the part that runs in the client stations. It imple‐
ments WPA key negotiation with a WPA Authenticator and EAP authentication
with Authentication Server using configuration information stored in a
text file.
The configuration file consists of optional global parameter settings and
one or more network blocks, e.g. one for each used SSID. The
wpa_supplicant(8) utility will automatically select the best network
based on the order of the network blocks in the configuration file, net‐
work security level (WPA/WPA2 is preferred), and signal strength. Com‐
ments are indicated with the ‘#’ character; all text to the end of the
line will be ignored.
GLOBAL PARAMETERS
Default parameters used by wpa_supplicant(8) may be overridden by speci‐
fying
parameter=value
in the configuration file (note no spaces are allowed). Values with
embedded spaces must be enclosed in quote marks.
The following parameters are recognized:
ctrl_interface
The pathname of the directory in which wpa_supplicant(8) creates
UNIX domain socket files for communication with frontend programs
such as wpa_cli(8).
ctrl_interface_group
A group name or group ID to use in setting protection on the con‐
trol interface file. This can be set to allow non-root users to
access the control interface files. If no group is specified,
the group ID of the control interface is not modified and will,
typically, be the group ID of the directory in which the socket
is created.
eapol_version
The IEEE 802.1x/EAPOL protocol version to use; either 1 (default)
or 2. The wpa_supplicant(8) utility is implemented according to
IEEE 802-1X-REV-d8 which defines EAPOL version to be 2. However,
some access points do not work when presented with this version
so by default wpa_supplicant(8) will announce that it is using
EAPOL version 1. If version 2 must be announced for correct
operation with an access point, this value may be set to 2.
ap_scan
Access point scanning and selection control; one of 0, 1
(default), or 2. Only setting 1 should be used with the wlan(4)
module; the other settings are for use on other operating sys‐
tems.
fast_reauth
EAP fast re-authentication; either 1 (default) or 0. Control
fast re-authentication support in EAP methods that support it.
NETWORK BLOCKS
Each potential network/access point should have a “network block” that
describes how to identify it and how to set up security. When multiple
network blocks are listed in a configuration file, the highest priority
one is selected for use or, if multiple networks with the same priority
are identified, the first one listed in the configuration file is used.
A network block description is of the form:
network={
parameter=value
...
}
(note the leading "network={" may have no spaces). The block specifica‐
tion contains one or more parameters from the following list:
ssid (required)
Network name (as announced by the access point). An ASCII or hex
string enclosed in quotation marks.
scan_ssid
SSID scan technique; 0 (default) or 1. Technique 0 scans for the
SSID using a broadcast Probe Request frame while 1 uses a
directed Probe Request frame. Access points that cloak them‐
selves by not broadcasting their SSID require technique 1, but
beware that this scheme can cause scanning to take longer to com‐
plete.
bssid Network BSSID (typically the MAC address of the access point).
priority
The priority of a network when selecting among multiple networks;
a higher value means a network is more desirable. By default
networks have priority 0. When multiple networks with the same
priority are considered for selection, other information such as
security policy and signal strength are used to select one.
mode IEEE 802.11 operation mode; either 0 (infrastructure, default) or
1 (IBSS). Note that IBSS (adhoc) mode can only be used with
key_mgmt set to NONE (plaintext and static WEP).
proto List of acceptable protocols; one or more of: WPA (IEEE
802.11i/D3.0) and RSN (IEEE 802.11i). WPA2 is another name for
RSN. If not set this defaults to "WPA RSN".
key_mgmt
List of acceptable key management protocols; one or more of:
WPA-PSK (WPA pre-shared key), WPA-EAP (WPA using EAP authentica‐
tion), IEEE8021X (IEEE 802.1x using EAP authentication and,
optionally, dynamically generated WEP keys), NONE (plaintext or
static WEP keys). If not set this defaults to "WPA-PSK WPA-EAP".
auth_alg
List of allowed IEEE 802.11 authentication algorithms; one or
more of: OPEN (Open System authentication, required for
WPA/WPA2), SHARED (Shared Key authentication), LEAP (LEAP/Network
EAP). If not set automatic selection is used (Open System with
LEAP enabled if LEAP is allowed as one of the EAP methods).
pairwise
List of acceptable pairwise (unicast) ciphers for WPA; one or
more of: CCMP (AES in Counter mode with CBC-MAC, RFC 3610, IEEE
802.11i/D7.0), TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, IEEE
802.11i/D7.0), NONE (deprecated). If not set this defaults to
"CCMP TKIP".
group List of acceptable group (multicast) ciphers for WPA; one or more
of: CCMP (AES in Counter mode with CBC-MAC, RFC 3610, IEEE
802.11i/D7.0), TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, IEEE
802.11i/D7.0), WEP104 (WEP with 104-bit key), WEP40 (WEP with
40-bit key). If not set this defaults to "CCMP TKIP WEP104
WEP40".
psk WPA preshared key used in WPA-PSK mode. The key is specified as
64 hex digits or as an 8-63 character ASCII passphrase. ASCII
passphrases are dynamically converted to a 256-bit key at runtime
using the network SSID, or they can be statically converted at
configuration time using the wpa_passphrase(8) utility.
eapol_flags
Dynamic WEP key usage for non-WPA mode, specified as a bit field.
Bit 0 (1) forces dynamically generated unicast WEP keys to be
used. Bit 1 (2) forces dynamically generated broadcast WEP keys
to be used. By default this is set to 3 (use both).
eap List of acceptable EAP methods; one or more of: MD5 (EAP-MD5,
cannot be used with WPA, used only as a Phase 2 method with EAP-
PEAP or EAP-TTLS), MSCHAPV2 (EAP-MSCHAPV2, cannot be used with
WPA; used only as a Phase 2 method with EAP-PEAP or EAP-TTLS),
OTP (EAP-OTP, cannot be used with WPA; used only as a Phase 2
metod with EAP-PEAP or EAP-TTLS), GTC (EAP-GTC, cannot be used
with WPA; used only as a Phase 2 metod with EAP-PEAP or EAP-
TTLS), TLS (EAP-TLS, client and server certificate), PEAP (EAP-
PEAP, with tunneled EAP authentication), TTLS (EAP-TTLS, with
tunneled EAP or PAP/CHAP/MSCHAP/MSCHAPV2 authentication). If not
set this defaults to all available methods compiled in to
wpa_supplicant(8). Note that by default wpa_supplicant(8) is
compiled with EAP support; see make.conf(5) for the
NO_WPA_SUPPLICANT_EAPOL configuration variable that can be used
to disable EAP support.
identity
Identity string for EAP.
anonymous_identity
Anonymous identity string for EAP (to be used as the unencrypted
identity with EAP types that support different tunneled identi‐
ties; e.g. EAP-TTLS).
mixed_cell
Configure whether networks that allow both plaintext and encryp‐
tion are allowed when selecting a BSS from the scan results. By
default this is set to 0 (disabled).
password
Password string for EAP.
ca_cert
Pathname to CA certificate file. This file can have one or more
trusted CA certificates. If ca_cert is not included, server cer‐
tificates will not be verified (not recommended).
client_cert
Pathname to client certificate file (PEM/DER).
private_key
Pathname to a client private key file (PEM/DER/PFX). When a
PKCS#12/PFX file is used, then client_cert should not be speci‐
fied as both the private key and certificate will be read from
PKCS#12 file.
private_key_passwd
Password for any private key file.
dh_file
Pathname to a file holding DH/DSA parameters (in PEM format).
This file holds parameters for an ephemeral DH key exchange. In
most cases, the default RSA authentication does not use this con‐
figuration. However, it is possible to set up RSA to use an
ephemeral DH key exchange. In addition, ciphers with DSA keys
always use ephemeral DH keys. This can be used to achieve for‐
ward secrecy. If the dh_file is in DSA parameters format, it
will be automatically converted into DH params.
subject_match
Substring to be matched against the subject of the authentication
server certificate. If this string is set, the server certifi‐
cate is only accepted if it contains this string in the subject.
The subject string is in following format:
/C=US/ST=CA/L=San Francisco/CN=Test
AS/emailAddress=as@example.com
phase1 Phase1 (outer authentication, i.e., TLS tunnel) parameters
(string with field-value pairs, e.g., "peapver=0" or "peapver=1
peaplabel=1").
peapver can be used to force which PEAP version (0 or 1) is used.
peaplabel=1 can be used to force new label, “client PEAP
encryption”, to be used during key derivation when PEAPv1 or
newer. Most existing PEAPv1 implementations seem to be using the
old label, “client EAP encryption”, and wpa_supplicant(8) is now
using that as the default value. Some servers, e.g., Radiator,
may require peaplabel=1 configuration to interoperate with
PEAPv1; see eap_testing.txt for more details.
peap_outer_success=0 can be used to terminate PEAP authentication
on tunneled EAP-Success. This is required with some RADIUS
servers that implement draft-josefsson-pppext-eap-tls-eap-05.txt
(e.g., Lucent NavisRadius v4.4.0 with PEAP in “IETF Draft 5”
mode).
include_tls_length=1 can be used to force wpa_supplicant(8) to
include TLS Message Length field in all TLS messages even if they
are not fragmented.
sim_min_num_chal=3 can be used to configure EAP-SIM to require
three challenges (by default, it accepts 2 or 3)
fast_provisioning=1 option enables in-line provisioning of EAP-
FAST credentials (PAC).
phase2 phase2: Phase2 (inner authentication with TLS tunnel) parameters
(string with field-value pairs, e.g., "auth=MSCHAPV2" for EAP-
PEAP or "autheap=MSCHAPV2 autheap=MD5" for EAP-TTLS).
ca_cert2
Like ca_cert but for EAP inner Phase 2.
client_cert2
Like client_cert but for EAP inner Phase 2.
private_key2
Like private_key but for EAP inner Phase 2.
private_key2_passwd
Like private_key_passwd but for EAP inner Phase 2.
dh_file2
Like dh_file but for EAP inner Phase 2.
subject_match2
Like subject_match but for EAP inner Phase 2.
eappsk 16-byte pre-shared key in hex format for use with EAP-PSK.
nai User NAI for use with EAP-PSK.
server_nai
Authentication Server NAI for use with EAP-PSK.
pac_file
Pathname to the file to use for PAC entries with EAP-FAST. The
wpa_supplicant(8) utility must be able to create this file and
write updates to it when PAC is being provisioned or refreshed.
eap_workaround
Enable/disable EAP workarounds for various interoperability
issues with misbehaving authentication servers. By default these
workarounds are enabled. Strict EAP conformance can be config‐
ured by setting this to 0.
CERTIFICATES
Some EAP authentication methods require use of certificates. EAP-TLS
uses both server- and client-side certificates, whereas EAP-PEAP and EAP-
TTLS only require a server-side certificate. When a client certificate
is used, a matching private key file must also be included in configura‐
tion. If the private key uses a passphrase, this has to be configured in
the wpa_supplicant.conf file as private_key_passwd.
The wpa_supplicant(8) utility supports X.509 certificates in PEM and DER
formats. User certificate and private key can be included in the same
file.
If the user certificate and private key is received in PKCS#12/PFX for‐
mat, they need to be converted to a suitable PEM/DER format for use by
wpa_supplicant(8). This can be done using the openssl(1) program, e.g.
with the following commands:
# convert client certificate and private key to PEM format
openssl pkcs12 -in example.pfx -out user.pem -clcerts
# convert CA certificate (if included in PFX file) to PEM format
openssl pkcs12 -in example.pfx -out ca.pem -cacerts -nokeys
EXAMPLES
WPA-Personal (PSK) as a home network and WPA-Enterprise with EAP-TLS as a
work network:
# allow frontend (e.g., wpa_cli) to be used by all users in 'wheel' group
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
#
# home network; allow all valid ciphers
network={
ssid="home"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="very secret passphrase"
}
#
# work network; use EAP-TLS with WPA; allow only CCMP and TKIP ciphers
network={
ssid="work"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
eap=TLS
identity="user@example.com"
ca_cert="/etc/cert/ca.pem"
client_cert="/etc/cert/user.pem"
private_key="/etc/cert/user.prv"
private_key_passwd="password"
}
WPA-RADIUS/EAP-PEAP/MSCHAPv2 with RADIUS servers that use old peaplabel
(e.g., Funk Odyssey and SBR, Meetinghouse Aegis, Interlink RAD-Series):
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
network={
ssid="example"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
eap=PEAP
identity="user@example.com"
password="foobar"
ca_cert="/etc/cert/ca.pem"
phase1="peaplabel=0"
phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
}
EAP-TTLS/EAP-MD5-Challenge configuration with anonymous identity for the
unencrypted use. Real identity is sent only within an encrypted TLS tun‐
nel.
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
network={
ssid="example"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
eap=TTLS
identity="user@example.com"
anonymous_identity="anonymous@example.com"
password="foobar"
ca_cert="/etc/cert/ca.pem"
phase2="auth=MD5"
}
Traditional WEP configuration with 104 bit key specified in hexadecimal.
Note the WEP key is not quoted.
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
network={
ssid="example"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=NONE
wep_tx_keyidx=0
wep_key0=42FEEDDEAFBABEDEAFBEEFAA55
}
FILES
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
/usr/share/examples/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
SEE ALSOwpa_cli(8), wpa_passphrase(8), wpa_supplicant(8)HISTORY
The wpa_supplicant.conf manual page and wpa_supplicant(8) functionality
first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.
AUTHORS
This manual page is derived from the README and wpa_supplicant.conf files
in the wpa_supplicant distribution provided by Jouni Malinen ⟨j@w1.fi⟩.
BSD July 8, 2007 BSD
