Resolving WPA limitations in SOHO and open public wireless networks

Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) is currently the most commonly used mechanism for protecting users of wireless networks. Protection is afforded by authenticating users of the network and encrypting communication which travels through the wireless medium. However, WPA is limited in the amount protection offered in networks which use a pre-shared key (WPA-PSK) for authentication, as anyone holding the PSK may eavesdrop on other authorized users. We present a lightweight enhancement to the WPA four-way handshake which removes this limitation, providing confidentiality even in a shared-key environment. In addition, we apply the enhancement to a non-authenticated open public WLAN environment thereby providing protection from sniffing attacks without requiring additional configuration or setup modifications to be made by the user