A new two-way authentication and privacy mechanism for WLAN security

Objective: Aiming at lots of vulnerabilities in the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) which threats the authentication and confidentiality in wireless communication, a new kind of mutual authentication and privacy mechanism named MWEP (Modified WEP) is proposed. Methods: MWEP is based on pseudo random number generator (PRNG) and asymmetric cryptograph approach, it generates a unique session-key like "One-Time Password" for each data frame transmission between any two mobile stations. Results: Using this session-key to encrypt the transmission data, not only can it avoid replay attack, but also provide a good secure virtual channel for the sender and receiver. MWEP can be incorporated into IEEE 802. 11. Conclusion: It shows that the proposed mechanism is effective and practical after comparison with WEP and simulation.