[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#382314: Need to scramble wpa-psk? Apparently yes, but not obvious

[Eduard Bloch]

Package: wpasupplicant
Version: 0.5.4-5
Severity: normal

Hello,

I was using previous versions of wpasupplicant (before ifupdown
integration) with a self-made conf file containing a preshared key.
Relevant contents:

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
    ssid="secret"
        psk="longsecret"
        # long ascii psk copied from the windows client
        priority=5
}

That worked fine, wpa_supplicant was started manually and I had no
complaints. But then came the ifupdownisation, I tried to follow
README.Debian.gz and README.modes.gz and it still did not work. There
was no usefull debug information in the logs either (as usual, sorry :-( ).
Just the usual game "link, few lost pakets, link lost, multiple times".

It was not obvious to me what was wrong. I integrated the values from
the mentioned config file with "wpa-" prefixes in the interfaces file.

Then I decided to play with the tools mentioned in README.modes.gz, I
used wpa_passphrase, passed my essid and the old psk to it and it threw
me some new key inside of a "config section". When I added this new key
as wpa-psk in the interfaces file, it worked.

Honestly, WTF? What is the difference? Manpage of wpa_passphrase does
not explain ANYTHING (like where and why I need to generate this key).
It displays a config section which differs from my old one... why? The
old one works when the config is supplied with -c configfile, why does
the same passphrase not work as wpa-psk variable?

I can only ASSUME that the programers decided to switch from a plaintext
pass phrase to a scrambled form. But in this case, DOCUMENT THE CHANGE
ON VISIBLE PLACES. Sorry, that's the minimum requirement for
user-friendlines.

And if I am wrong with this assumption then there is a bug,
wpa_supplicant does not buy the same psk as in the config file specified
with -c.

Eduard.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-1-686
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages wpasupplicant depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.3.6-18   GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libncurses5                   5.5-2      Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libreadline5                  5.1-7      GNU readline and history libraries
ii  libssl0.9.8                   0.9.8b-2   SSL shared libraries

Versions of packages wpasupplicant recommends:
pn  dhcp3-client                  <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information