What are Protected Management Frames?

What are Protected Management Frames?

Protected Management Frames (PMF) provide protection for unicast and multicast management action frames. Unicast management action frames are protected from both eavesdropping and forging, and multicast management action frames are protected from forging. They augment privacy protections already in place for data frames with mechanisms to improve the resiliency of mission-critical networks. PMF is required for all new certified devices.

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What are “legacy protocols”?

Other legacy protocols are earlier generations of Wi-Fi security, which have been updated or replaced over time due to the changing security landscape needs. The original security standard was Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). It was replaced by the original Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) in 2003 as an interim solution to the limited protection offered by WEP. The WPA program added support for Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) encryption, an older form of security technology with some vulnerability to cryptographic attacks. WPA was replaced in 2004 with more advanced protocols of WPA2.

Though the threat of a security compromise is small, users should not purchase new equipment which supports only WPA with TKIP. Only devices supporting WPA3 security should be purchased and used.

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