Configure Wi-Fi encryption

OpenWrt supports WPA/WPA2 PSK (“WPA Personal”)/WPA3 SAE, 802.11i (“WPA Enterprise”) and WEP encryption. (Supported mode may vary based on the installed wifi package installed)

The used encryption protocol is defined per network in the wifi-iface sections of the wireless configuration.

All encryption settings can also be changed via the LuCI interface (Network > Wi-Fi).

Only WPA2 or greater is secure; Consider that WPA2 also suffer from some vulnerabilities (OpenWrt currently provide workaround to handle these vulnerabilities). WPA3 is advised; 1st gen WPA is not and should never be used and flagged as deprecated.

For Broadcom wireless chips using the proprietary driver you have to install the nas package.

opkg update
opkg install nas

For Atheros and mac80211 supported wireless chips, the wpad, hostapd or wpa_supplicant package is required. There are several WPA packages with different support options available.

The table below outlines the features supported by the packages and since which OpenWrt version they're available.

If not installed yet, choose the appropriate package for the desired configuration.

opkg update
opkg install wpad-mini

Configure WPA (PSK) encryption using UCI.

uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=psk
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key="your_password"
uci commit wireless
wifi

The length must be between 8 and 63 characters. If the key length is 64 characters, it is treated as hex encoded.

Configure WPA2 (PSK) encryption using UCI.

uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=psk2
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key="your_password"
uci commit wireless
wifi

The length must be between 8 and 63 characters. If the key length is 64 characters, it is treated as hex encoded.

The default -mini packages for Atheros hardware will not work with Enterprise mode. (See the table above.)

The example below defines WPA2 Enterprise encryption in AP mode with authentication against an external RADIUS server at 192.168.1.200, port 1812.

uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=wpa2
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key="shared_secret"
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].server=192.168.1.200
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].port=1812
uci commit wireless
wifi

The default -mini packages for Atheros hardware will not work with Enterprise mode. (See the table above.)

• Enter the following:

uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=wpa2
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].mode="sta"
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].ssid="SET_AS_NEEDED"
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=wpa2+ccmp
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].eap_type=peap
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].auth=gtc
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].identity="SET_AS_NEEDED"
uci commit wireless
wifi

• Modify the generated wpa_supplicant.conf file in the /var/run folder to remove the password=“” line using your favorite editor.
• Enter the following:

wpa_cli -p /var/run/wpa_supplicant-wlan0
>status

• note the id of your interface (usually 0 in single interface systems)
• Enter the following at the wpa_cli prompt

>reconfigure
>reassociate

• When prompted for you OTP PIN enter the following at the wpa_cli prompt (if necessary replace the 0 with your desired interface id):

>otp 0 YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE

Some notes for the WEP key format:

• The format for the WEP key for the key1 option is HEX.

If you wish to use raw hex keys then you can skip to the UCI commands paragraph below. Raw hex keys have 10 hex digits (0..9, a..f) for 64-bit WEP keys and 26 hex digits for 128-bit WEP keys.

If you do not wish to use raw hex keys then follow the instructions below.

• The length of a 64bit WEP key must be exact 5 characters
• The length of a 128bit WEP key must be exact 13 characters
• Allowed characters are letters (upper and lower case) and numbers

Generate a 64bit WEP key:

# echo -n 'awerf' | hexdump -e '5/1 "%02x" "\n"'
6177657266

Generate a 128bit WEP key:

# echo -n 'xdhdkkewioddd' | hexdump -e '13/1 "%02x" "\n"'
786468646b6b6577696f646464

Now use UCI to configure WEP encryption with the hex key you just generated.

uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=wep
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key1="786468646b6b6577696f646464"
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key=1
uci commit wireless
wifi

You can configure up to four WEP keys.