Re: How to connect to a WPA network that uses 10 hexadecimal digits as password

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 18:03 +0200, Jaap A. Haitsma wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 17:29, Larry Finger <Larry Finger lwfinger net> wrote:
> > Jaap A. Haitsma wrote:
> >> On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 03:07, Aaron Konstam <akonstam sbcglobal net> wrote:
> >>> On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 08:06 +0200, Jaap A. Haitsma wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> I'm in a hotel currently and the wifi uses WPA encryption and password
> >>>> is a 10 digit hexadecimal number. When I use this number in Windows it
> >>>> works fine. However if I use NetworkManager it doesn't. If I look at
> >>>> the password that's actually being stored by NetworkManager I a
> >>>> hexadecimal number that is much larger. I'm assuming that's the hash
> >>>> of the password I'm entering. However I think in this case it should
> >>>> not take the hash but use the 10 digit hexadecimal number directly.
> >>>>
> >>>> Is this possible in NetworkManager?
> >>>> Are my assumptions correct? (I've never seen this WPA with a 10digit
> >>>> hexadecimal password before)
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks
> >>>>
> >>>> Jaap
> >>> Yes it is possible. Are you sure you are entering it as a hex numver not
> >>> aas a passphrase ot Asci string. Is the stored passwd filled with ascii
> >>> number representations which would make it longer.
> >>
> >> I'm not entering the it as a hex numver, because I don't know how to
> >> do this. I don't see an option for that. I've just tried prefixing the
> >> hex password with with 0x, but that also does not work
> >
> > Please post the output of 'iwlist scan'. That should indicate what style of
> > encryption is being used.
> >
> > To answer your first question, if a 10 character phrase consisting of 0-9 and
> > A-F were used as the WPA "secret", it would not be special and would be
> > converted to a 32-digit hex key just like any other phrase.
> >
> > Larry
> >
> 
> iwlist scan gives the following output
> 
> wlan0     Scan completed :
>           Cell 01 - Address: 00:1F:41:0F:FE:59
>                     ESSID:"STI WiFi"
>                     Mode:Master
>                     Channel:11
>                     Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
>                     Quality=100/100  Signal level:-37 dBm  Noise level=-94 dBm
>                     Encryption key:on
>                     IE: Unknown: 00085354492057694669
>                     IE: Unknown: 010482848B96
>                     IE: Unknown: 03010B
>                     IE: Unknown: 2A0103
>                     IE: Unknown: 32080C1218243048606C
>                     IE: Unknown:
> DD180050F2020101880003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
>                     IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F
>                     IE: Unknown: DD080013920100010500
>                     IE: WPA Version 1
>                         Group Cipher : TKIP
>                         Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
>                         Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
>                     Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
>                               9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
>                               48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
>                     Extra:tsf=0000006526c04184
>                     Extra: Last beacon: 88ms ago
> 
> 
> Instructions of the hotel are the following
> 
> SSID: STI WiFi
> key: a531bc531d
> PC: Network Key
> MAC: WPA 10 digits

Could you try turning off NM, killing wpa_supplicant, and using
'iwconfig' to association with WEP instead?

killall -TERM NetworkManager
killall -TERM wpa_supplicant
iwconfig wlan0 key a531bc531d essid "STI WiFi"

you  might need to try the iwconfig a few times; then if you do an
'iwconfig' on its own, look for the "AP:" address to be valid, and if it
does, try dhclient.

If that doesn't work, there are a few things with wpa_supplicant we can
try.

Dan