wpa_supplicant & ipv6

[Jouni Malinen]

On Tue, Jun 27, 2006 at 10:32:20AM -0400, Dan Williams wrote:

> Question came my way recently about wpa_supplicant and IPv6.  My initial
> reaction was that wpa_supplicant shouldn't be doing _anything_ with IP
> addresses, since that's what other programs are supposed to do.

The main functionality of the supplicant has nothing to do with IP,
whether it is v4 or v6.

> However, l2_packet_linux.c has a call for IFADDR, which is used in
> ctrl_iface.c for the STATUS call.  So what's the flow here for the l2
> stuff in 802.1x auth, and does the auth server actually send us an IPv4
> address which we're then expected to use for something?  Do other tools
> need to pick that address up from the control socket and use it, or is
> the l2 stuff completely encapsulated within wpa_supplicant not supposed
> to be exposed outside of it?

The only exception is that the IP address is provided for a GUI/CLI to
display. This is not used for anything else. EAPOL and RSN
pre-authentication packats are using their own ethertypes and in that
way, are at similar layer as IP. IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2 does not need IP
connectivity for anything in the supplicant.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA