Bryan D. Payne (bdpayne@cs.umd.edu)
Nick L. Petroni Jr. (npetroni@cs.umd.edu)
Chris Hessing (chris@open1x.org)
Terry Simons (Terry.Simons@open1x.org)
This work funded by a grant from National Institute of Standards and Technology Critical Infrastructure Grants Program.
This software allows a GNU/Linux/BSD/Windows workstation to authenticate with a RADIUS server using 802.1x and various EAP protocols. The intended use is for computers with wireless LAN connections to complete a strong authentication before joining the network.
Note: BSD support is not yet complete.
This provides a good complement to WEP, which provides confidentiality. Even though it is well documented that WEP has technical flaws, it is still better than simply sending data in the clear. Therefore, we recommend using this software (802.1x) for authentication and WEP, WPA, or WPA2/802.11i for confidentiality. And, as always, be prepared to update your network(s) as better security solutions become available.
For a basic, no frills installation :
The following packages must be installed before configuring and building
this software package:
Openssl 0.9.7 (or greater) http://www.openssl.org
Linux - The iwconfig library that comes as part of the wireless_tools package is required.
Mac OS X - For wireless support, libdarwinwireless is required. (As of this writing, libdarwinwireless cannot be released to the public due to restrictions on the Airport API.)
xsupplicant [-i
[-d
[-q] [-a]
-i provide the interface on which to listen for EAPOL packets
-c configuration file to use (/etc/xsupplicant.conf default)
-d display different levels of debug information.
-w don't attempt to use WPA support
-f run in the forground
-D use WPA support for driver
-z zero WEP keys on roam (Needed for Orinoco and some other drivers)
-t don't use IW_ENCODE_TEMP when setting keys
-q terminate when defaulting to authenticated state
-a what (interface index)-1 for wireless events (needed for hostap driver)
While the program can be started from the command line directly, it will most commonly be used as part of a script to bring up a network interface and be started in daemon mode. Example network scripts ifup and ifdown have been provided and tested in FreeBSD4.4, RedHat Linux, and Debian Linux and have been written to work on any system with ifconfig and either dhcpcd or pump. It is suggested that these scripts be used in place of the usual ones whenever bringing up or down an interface for 802.1X authentication. Furthermore, for 802.11 networks it is recommended that the interface is brought down and back up in the case of changing networks (going to a new essid).
NOTE: if you are using dynamic WEP, you may need to specify the -z command line option for Xsupplicant to work properly.
An example configuration file has been provided. The default path for the configuration file is /etc/xsupplicant.conf, however, a different file can be specified at startup with the -c flag.
Please see the example config files in the etc directory.
More on certificates can be found in README.certificates The following formats MUST be used at this time for the respective certificates/keys. Openssl can be used to convert certificate formats and an example script called pkcs12toDERandPEM.sh has been provided. This script takes a single argument of a pkcs#12 file, containing the user's certificate and private key, and produces the files key.pem and cert.cer to be used by xsupplicant. The following are the required formats:
User Certificate: DER format
User Private Key: PEM format
Root Certificate store: PEM format
EAP-MD5: This form of authentication should not be used on wireless connections! MD5 cannot be used to generate keying material.
EAP-SIM: Is not enabled by default. To enable it, you will need to add the --enable-eap-sim argument to configure. Turning EAP-SIM on, also requires the following additional libraries : PCSC (http://www.musclecard.com), and pthreads.
EAP-AKA: Is not enabled by default. To enable it, you will need to add the --enable-eap-sim argument to configure. Turning EAP-AKA on, also requires the following additional libraries : PCSC (http://www.musclecard.com), and pthreads.
WPA/WPA2/802.11i: Wireless extensions 18, or special driver support is required to use WPA/WPA2/802.11i. Please see the README.wpa in the doc directory.
EAP-TNC: Requires that the libtnc library be installed to work properly. Please download this from the libtnc web page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/libtnc