Summary: Understanding OWE operation from the Aruba Networks demo presented at MFD3.<br> Aruba Networks Demos OWE<br> Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) is a security improvement coming to open SSIDs. It’s aimed at securing the insecure. We see it everywhere. A Wi-Fi network completely open for clients to join. It’s unencrypted traffic between clients and the AP.<br> OWE was demoed by Aruba Networks at Mobility Field Day 3 (MFD3) and I was able to capture the frames during the demo. Aruba needed to build a custom supplicant using Ubuntu in order for this demo to work since there are no working clients supporting OWE yet.<br> There was an AP broadcasting an SSID, MFD-OWE, in OWE Transition Mode.<br> An SSID in OWE Transition Mode will utilize 2 BSSIDs. One for the Open SSID, for clients that do not support OWE, and another BSSID for the OWE-capable SSID. That’s something to keep in mind for OWE Transition Mode.<br> When most clients support OWE, an SSID strictly supporting OWE can be configured.<br> In the demo, Aruba Networks created a custom supplicant within Ubuntu since there are no OWE capable clients available. In a Probe Response to the client, there will be an Information Element containing the BSSID and SSID for an OWE-capable client to send a Probe Request to.<br> The client sends a Probe Request frame to the OWE SSID, which is a hidden SSID.<br> Within the Association Request frame, the client will include an RSN Information Element. Within that RSNIE there will be the MFP requirement needed in OWE.<br> After association a 4-way handshake will follow and when complete, transmissions will be encrypted.<br> Information you’ll need for the pcap file:<br> Open SSID: MFD-OWE<br><br> BSSID of MFD-OWE: 20:a6:cd:60:00:b0<br> OWE SSID: _owetm_MFD-OWE2340208851<br><br> BSSID: 20:a6:cd:60:00:b1<br> Client MAC: 9c:b6:d0:d7:ce:dd<br> Links and Resources<br> <br> * <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SMjVu631pvFlDvdf0xhctsKx7CE1xRl4" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">OWE pcap file</a><br> * <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qp2o403V7MvFGNfPru9cnRdv21i14Fxs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">WiFi Explorer Pro File</a><br> <br> <br>
