[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#653515: Bug#653515: Very chatty in syslog; message every time rekeying occurs

[Kel Modderman]

Hi Josh,

> > > wpa_supplicant logs a message like this to syslog every time WPA group
> > > rekeying occurs:
> > > 
> > > Dec 24 08:26:16 leaf wpa_supplicant[1319]: WPA: Group rekeying completed with AP:MA:CA:DD:RE:SS [GTK=CCMP]
> > > 
> > > On a network configured to rekey frequently, this generates a large
> > > number of syslog message, drowning out more useful log messages.
> > > 
> > > Does wpa_supplicant really need to log every time rekeying occurs?
> > 
> > You can configure the logging verbosity through your 
> > /etc/network/interfaces stanza on a per interface basis, quoting from
> > /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/README.Debian.gz:
> [snip]
> > Rekeying events are at MSG_INFO severity, setting wpa-debug-level to -1
> > will raise the bar to MSG_WARNING and hide all rekeying notices (which 
> > are still readable in e.g. wpa_cli) from the logs.
> 
> I appreciate the pointer to information on how to make this message go
> away on my system, but I intended the bug report as a request to make
> wpa_supplicant less chatty by default.
> 
> My question above still applies: Does wpa_supplicant really need to log
> every time rekeying occurs?

No

> What value does this provide?

Not much to me

> Could this
> message become something that only appears at -v or above, rather than
> by default?

Yep, sure could


Now we just need this report summarised and sent to hostap at lists.shmoo.com
to get something done about it.

Thanks, Kel