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dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY

dellsweig

MVM

how to get IOS to join Wifi - passkey less than 8 chars

Greetings

My wife works in a local deli - they just got WiFi but the owner setup the passcode to seven chars (not secure - i know)

Apple in their infinite wisdom will not 'ungrey' the JOIN button on a wifi config screen until at least an 8 char passcode is typed in.

Is there a way to over-ride this in IOS (6.x)

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan

Premium Member

No because AFAIK WPA and WPA2 require 8-64 characters. You can't have a shorter (eg 7 or fewer char) ASCII passphrase.

dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY

dellsweig

MVM

said by skeechan:

No because AFAIK WPA and WPA2 require 8-64 characters. You can't have a shorter (eg 7 or fewer char) ASCII passphrase.

WPA2 specs out minimum 8 chars - not WPA and this network is 7 chars - '1234567' (wpa)

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

4 edits

skeechan

Premium Member

Then no, you will have to change the PSK to 8 characters or more. Apple is following the 802.11i-2004 PSK assumptions. 802.11i-2004 (the WPA2 guidelines) supersede 802.11i. So even for WPA, HW vendors are supposed to require a min of 8 characters through firmware updates to the routers and software updates for clientware.
said by Page 166 802.11i-2004 :
Here, the following assumptions apply:
— A pass-phrase is a sequence of between 8 and 63 ASCII-encoded characters. The limit of 63 comes
from the desire to distinguish between a pass-phrase and a PSK displayed as 64 hexadecimal
characters.
— Each character in the pass-phrase must have an encoding in the range of 32 to 126 (decimal),
inclusive.
— ssid is the SSID of the ESS or IBSS where this pass-phrase is in use, encoded as an octet string used
in the Beacon and Probe Response frames for the ESS or IBSS.
— ssidLength is the number of octets of the ssid.
— 4096 is the number of times the pass-phrase is hashed.
— 256 is the number of bits output by the pass-phrase mapping.
However HW vendors do whatever they want. I would add an "!" to the end of you current passphrase. It is easy to remember and will get you the 8 characters required.

dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY

1 recommendation

dellsweig

MVM

Just went over there and resolved everything - The business (deli) had factory admin still set on the router. Locked it down, secured the wireless and all is good with the world.

Even got free breakfast

not
@comcast.net

not

Anon

While you're at it, file a bug report/complaint to the maker of the wireless gear there to fix that glitch in their firmware. If they refuse and state that 7 should be sufficient regardless of regulations, then file a complaint to Apple on their Feedback page that they shouldn't be locking users out of possible configs because they feel like following the current guidelines. That choice should be the user's, not Apple's.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan

Premium Member

No, Apple shouldn't be permitting settings outside of expected IEEE specifications. The emails should be going to vendors not updating their gear to current IEEE specification.
Expand your moderator at work
Daemon
Premium Member
join:2003-06-29
Washington, DC

Daemon to not

Premium Member

to not

Re: how to get IOS to join Wifi - passkey less than 8 chars

said by not :

While you're at it, file a bug report/complaint to the maker of the wireless gear there to fix that glitch in their firmware. If they refuse and state that 7 should be sufficient regardless of regulations, then file a complaint to Apple on their Feedback page that they shouldn't be locking users out of possible configs because they feel like following the current guidelines. That choice should be the user's, not Apple's.

If the owner of the deli had the thing set to factory default settings, what makes you think it was running up-to-date firmware?

not
@comcast.net

not

Anon

said by Daemon:

If the owner of the deli had the thing set to factory default settings, what makes you think it was running up-to-date firmware?

Where in my post do you see me say anything about latest firmware? While the proper steps would be to check to make sure it's on latest firmware and then test against this issue and then file a bug report if it's still present, that doesn't detract from the fact that it must still be done. Please don't put words or assumptions into my mouth. What I said and what you "think" I meant are two completely different things.

planet
join:2001-11-05
Oz

planet to dellsweig

Member

to dellsweig
Glad you could help out. If the pass key is less than 8 characters, can't you enter 8 or more and the router will only read the first 7 anyway.

squircle
join:2009-06-23
OTWAON10

squircle

Member

said by planet:

Glad you could help out. If the pass key is less than 8 characters, can't you enter 8 or more and the router will only read the first 7 anyway.

No, that's not how it works. The router never sees the passkey entered on the client device.