WPA_SUPPLICANT.CONF(5) | File Formats Manual | WPA_SUPPLICANT.CONF(5)

# NAME

wpa_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 implements 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, network security level (WPA/WPA2 is preferred), and signal strength. Comments 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 specifying

> `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 control 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.
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 specification 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 themselves by not broadcasting their SSID require technique 1, but beware that this scheme can cause scanning to take longer to complete.
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 authentication), `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 converted to a 256-bit key using the network SSID by 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 method with EAP-PEAP or EAP-TTLS), `GTC` (EAP-GTC, cannot be used with WPA; used only as a Phase 2 method 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.
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 identities; e.g. EAP-TTLS).
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 certificates 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 specified 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 configuration. 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 forward 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 certificate 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. String EAP conformance can be configured 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 configuration. 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 format, 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 tunnel.

    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
    }

# SEE ALSO

wpa_cli(8), wpa_passphrase(8), wpa_supplicant(8)

# HISTORY

The wpa_supplicant.conf manual page and wpa_supplicant(8) functionality first appeared in NetBSD 4.0.

# AUTHORS

This manual page is derived from the README and wpa_supplicant.conf files in the wpa_supplicant distribution provided by Jouni Malinen <jkmaline@cc.hut.fi>.

December 22, 2007 | NetBSD 6.0