Configure WiFi encryption

Howto setup wireless encryption with OpenWrt Kamikaze. You can do the same from within the LuCI WebUI (Network > Wifi) if you prefer a GUI.

Key generation

To generate a random password for your key you can use the pwgen program. pwgen is available for most Linux distributions and is also packaged for OpenWrt Kamikaze. Run it with e.g. pwgen --secret 13 1 (meaning: generate 1 password with a length of 13 letters/numbers). On Debian Etch, use pwgen --secure 13 1.

WPA encryption

Broadcom WiFi

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

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install nas

Atheros WiFi

For Atheros wireless chips install the hostapd package if your run in AP mode.

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install hostapd

TIP: If you only need WPA (PSK) encryption you can install the hostapd-mini package which does not depend on the zlib and libopenssl packages.

If you have a Atheros wireless and run it in client-mode you have to install the wpa-supplicant package instead of hostapd.

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install wpa-supplicant

Configure WPA (PSK)

Configure WPA (PSK) encryption using UCI.

root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=psk
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key=<password>
root@OpenWrt:~# uci commit wireless
root@OpenWrt:~# wifi

Note: For the key only letters (upper and lower case) and numbers are allowed. The length must be between 8 and 63 characters.

Configure WPA2 (PSK)

Configure WPA2 (PSK) encryption using UCI.

root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=psk2
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key=<password>
root@OpenWrt:~# uci commit wireless
root@OpenWrt:~# wifi

Note: For the key only letters (upper and lower case) and numbers are allowed. The length must be between 8 and 63 characters.

Configuration is also possible via direct editing of /etc/config/wireless:

        option encryption   psk
        option key          "your_password"

See KamikazeConfiguration for information on configuration files in general, and a full outline of the wifi config file in particular.

WEP encryption (not recommended)

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 WEB keys.

If you do not wish to use raw hex keys then:

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:

root@OpenWrt:~# echo -n 'awerf' | hexdump -e '5/1 "%02x" "\n"' | cut -d ':' -f 1-5
6177657266

Generate a128bit WEP key:

root@OpenWrt:~# echo -n 'xdhdkkewioddd' | hexdump -e '13/1 "%02x" "\n"' | cut -d ':' -f 1-13
786468646b6b6577696f646464

The above commands generate a 64bit and a 128bit WEP key in hex format.

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

root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=wep
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key1=<WEP_key_in_hex_format>
root@OpenWrt:~# uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key=1
root@OpenWrt:~# uci commit wireless
root@OpenWrt:~# wifi

You can configure up to four WEP keys.

OpenWrtDocs/KamikazeConfiguration/WiFiEncryption