Addressing the vulnerability of the 4-way handshake of 802.11i

Abstract

This paper will introduce IEEE 802.11i, the new generation of security standard for wireless local area network (WLAN), analyze 802.1x authentication and key management mechanisms, elaborate on the 4-way handshake protocol, point out the vulnerability of the protocol and the possible attack it may incur taking into consideration the actual conditions, describe a solution proposed by IEEE 802.11i, its limitations and still existing attacks and finally propose a solution to authentication of the initial message.