A Novel Rekeying Protocol for 802.11s Key Management

Abstract

In this paper, we identify a vulnerability of IEEE 802.11 wireless Mesh LANs in which a compromised mesh point can still receive data from other mesh points. Then we propose a new protocol that can counter this attack by considering the effective period of both the mesh points (MPs) when decide the lifetime of the key shared between them. We also amend 802.11s draft in order not to bring about a fundamental change to the whole key hierarchy, and propose a protocol to refresh the shared key when it expired. Then we prove the security of the protocol using Protocol Composition Logic (PCL).