wps_enrollee-20071029

[Ted Merrill]

Jouni,

Thank you very much, that is valuable information to have.
I haven't thought this through too far, but perhaps the way it should work 
then is:
-- wpa_supplicant already running
-- separate software determines which wireless interface is being
 configured, the ssid to use for configuration as well as the security
 mode to use (push button or pin)
-- the separate software sends a wpa_ctrl request to begin WPS with the given 
parameters.
-- wpa_supplicant then switches to using an open mode configuration with the 
parameters passed
-- when associated, wpa_supplicant supports the WPS state machine until final 
success or failure.
-- on failure, wpa_supplicant puts all back the way it was.
-- on success it gets a little more complicated... typically we will want to 
save the new configuration to a file for later use, and begin using it 
immediately as well, probably in preference to anything existing... but there 
could be exceptions...

Also of course note that determining the ssid to use is best done by scanning, 
filtering the results to find those that are "wps ready", and getting user OK 
to proceed... presumeably this would use wpa_ctrl ...

-Ted

On Tuesday 06 November 2007 20:23:55 Jouni Malinen wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 05, 2007 at 04:57:11PM -0800, Ted Merrill wrote:
> > After reviewing Atheros' wps_enrollee code plus the lastest hostap code,
> > i've come to the conclusion that i should be using the wpa_ctrl interface
> > in my rewrite of wps_enrollee.
>
> ctrl_iface is useful for number of cases, but I'm not sure that
> wps_enrollee should be a completely separate program..
>
> > Here is how it would work:
> > -- wpa_supplicant already running
> > -- separate software determines which writeless interface is being
> > configured, the ssid to use for configuration as well as the security
> > mode to use (push button or pin)
> > -- wps_enrollee is run, being passed this information.
> > -- wps_enrollee registers (via wpa_ctrl) to be called on assocation with
> > ap. -- wps_enrollee tells wpa_supplicant (via wpa_ctrl interface) to
> > associate the interface in open mode (required for WPS).
> > -- on association with ap, wps_enrollee state machine runs
> > -- when wps state machine is done and new configuration established,
> > wps_enrollee optionally writes to file and optionally tells
> > wps_supplicant directly the new parameters (via wpa_ctrl).
>
> What are the benefits of keeping wps_enrollee separate? As far as I can
> tell, it seems to share lots of functionality and implementation with
> wpa_supplicant and as such, it would likely add extra work for
> maintaining the code and extra cost in program size if it were to remain
> separate.
>
> There may be some limits on resources that make it difficult to run two
> programs that process EAPOL frames at the same time. For example,
> NDISUIO on Windows XP does not support more than one program at a time
> for receiving frames. Consequently, wpa_supplicant and wps_enrollee
> could not use l2_packet_ndis.c at the same time.
>
> --
> Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA