The iwinfo shows an incorrect encryption type for the scanned STA in 2.9-dev build

General
1

I have the 2.9-dev build and installed firmware on the Morse Micro HalowLink 1 device. However, the iwinfo scan results report incorrect encryption types for clients, as I posted below. The encryption type for Mgear-0EF9_S1G should be “WPA3 SAE,” and the encryption type for halowlink1-b312-MM should be “mixed WPA2/WPA3 PSK/OWE.”

Cell 03 - Address: 00:0A:52:0C:15:2B
          ESSID: "Mgear-0EF9_S1G"
          Mode: Master  Frequency: 923.500 MHz  Band: 900 MHz  Channel: 44
          Signal: -53 dBm  Quality: 57/70
          Encryption: WPA3 OWE (CCMP)
          AH Operation:
                    Channel Width: 8 MHz
                    Primary Channel: 43

Cell 04 - Address: 94:BB:43:DC:F0:3F
          ESSID: "halowlink1-b312-MM"
          Mode: Master  Frequency: 907.500 MHz  Band: 900 MHz  Channel: 12
          Signal: -18 dBm  Quality: 70/70
          Encryption: WPA3 OWE (CCMP)
          AH Operation:
                    Channel Width: 8 MHz
                    Primary Channel: 11
2

In the 802.11ah short beacon format, the necessary IEs to determine the encryption type aren’t included. Unfortunately, due to an error in the fallback code, this case of ‘we know encryption is there but we don’t know what it is’ is reported as OWE.

In our next release, we have made some small changes to the iwinfo scan code to:

  • use active scans (if not an AP) which means we get probe responses (i.e. and can report the correct info)
  • if we don’t have any info but know its encrypted, fall back to reporting SAE/OWE (unlikely to be correct, but more useful than just reporting OWE). Note that strictly WPA2 is not allowed in the 802.11ah standard

Unfortunately, I can’t say when this will be out. Let us know if this is causing you a particular issue and I can see if I can offer any suggestions for workarounds.