Secure key exchange scheme for WPA/WPA2-PSK using public key cryptography

Abstract

This paper proposes authentication and key exchange scheme to communicate between users securely in small scale Wi-Fi networks. Depend on the Wi-Fi options, there can be various vulnerabilities in the network. Especially, most of small scale Wi-Fi networks have used the options which can cause several vulnerabilities. These Wi-Fi networks use passphrase for access authentication. However, these passphrases are known by the small network owner. In such circumstances, the network cannot assure security between users in the same network. In the existing Wi-Fi network, attackers in the same network can acquire pairwise keys by eavesdropping messages. Thus, this paper proposes the secure key exchange scheme to apply a public key cryptography. Using public key system, a station and an access point exchange a secondary key which user selects. This key is used for pairwise key generation. Through the proposed scheme, the network can protect users from several attacks in the same Wi-Fi network.