Introduction to the soft AP function hostapd in Linux

Hostapd introduction:

To put it simply, hostapd can switch the wireless network adapter to the master mode and simulate the AP (which can be considered as a router) function, that is, the soft AP we call it ).

As an AP authentication server, hostapd is responsible for controlling and managing the access and authentication of stations (usually a PC with a wireless network card.

You can use hostapd to switch the wireless network adapter to the AP/master mode. By modifying the configuration file, you can create an open (unencrypted), WEP, WPA, or wpa2 wireless network. You can modify the configuration file to set various parameters of the wireless network card, including the frequency, signal, Beacon package time interval, whether to send the beacon package, and whether to respond to the probe request. You can also set MAC address filtering conditions. For details, refer to its configuration file description.

The following are some of the reasons and translations taken from the official website. Sorry for the poor translation.

 

Hostapd isIEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1x/WPA/wpa2/EAP/radius authenticator.

Hostapd isIEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1x/WPA/wpa2/EAP/radiusAuthenticator

Hostapd is a user space daemon for Access Point and Authentication servers. it implements IEEE 802.11 Access Point management, IEEE 802.1x/WPA/wpa2/EAP authenticators, radius client, EAP server, and RADIUS Authentication Server. the current version supports Linux (host AP, madwi-fi, mac80211-based drivers) and FreeBSD (net80211 ).

Hostapd is an access point and a daemon that runs on the authentication server in the user space. It implements the Access Point management function of IEEE 802.11. It is an IEEE 802.1x/WPA/wpa2/EAP authenticator, which is a radius client, EAP server, and RADIUS Authentication Server. The current version of hostapd supports Linux host AP, madwifi, mac80211 protocol stack-based drivers, and FreeBSD net80211 protocol stack drivers.

 

Hostapd is designed to be a "daemon" program that runs in the background and acts as the backend component controlling authentication. hostapd supports separate frontend programs and an example text-based frontend, hostapd_cli, is supported ded with hostapd.

Hostapd is a background daemon that acts as a background component to control and manage authentication functions. Hostapd supports multiple foreground programs. Hostapd_cli is a command line front-end program with hostapd.

 

Supported features

Supported WPA/IEEE 802.11i/EAP/IEEE 802.1x features

Supports WPA, IEEE 802.11i, EAP, and IEEE 802.1x

• WPA-PSK ("WPA-personal ")
• WPA with EAP (with integrated EAP server or an external radius backend authentication server) ("WPA-enterprise ")
• Key management for CCMP, TKIP, wep104, wep40
• WPA and full IEEE 802.11i/RSN/wpa2
• RSN: pmksa caching, pre-Authentication
• IEEE 802.11r
• IEEE 802.11 W
• RADIUS accounting
• RADIUS Authentication Server with EAP
• Wi-Fi Protected setup (WPs)
• Supported EAP methods (Integrated EAP server and RADIUS Authentication Server)
• EAP-TLS
• EAP-PEAP/mschapv2 (both peapv0 and peapv1)
• EAP-PEAP/TLS (both peapv0 and peapv1)
• EAP-PEAP/GTC (both peapv0 and peapv1)
• EAP-PEAP/MD5-Challenge (both peapv0 and peapv1)
• EAP-TTLS/EAP-MD5-Challenge
• EAP-TTLS/EAP-GTC
• EAP-TTLS/EAP-MSCHAPv2
• EAP-TTLS/mschapv2
• EAP-TTLS/EAP-TLS
• EAP-TTLS/mschap
• 5) EAP-TTLS/PAP
• EAP-TTLS/chap.
• EAP-SIM
• EAP-AKA
• EAP-AKA'
• EAP-PAX
• EAP-PSK
• EAP-SAKE
• EAP-FAST
• EAP-IKEv2
• EAP-GPSK

 

Following methods are also supported, but since they do not generate keying material, they cannot be used with WPA or IEEE 802.1x WEP keying.

The following functions are also supported, but these do not generate key data, so they cannot be used together with WPA or IEEE 802.1x WEP.

• EAP-MD5-Challenge
• EAP-MSCHAPv2
• EAP-GTC
• EAP-TNC (trusted network connect; TNCs, IF-IMV, IF-T, IF-TNCCS)

 

Supported wireless network adapters/Drivers

• Linux mac80211 drivers
• Host AP driver for prism2/2.5/3
• Madwifi (atheros ar521x)
• BSD net80211 layer (e.g., atheros driver) (FreeBSD 6-current)

 

How to determine whether a wireless network card can be supported by hostpad

Taking ubuntu10.04 as an Example

Run sudo aptitude install IW to install the Wireless Configuration tool IW.

Execute the IW list. If the AP is displayed in the following results, it indicates that the NIC supports hostapd.

Supported interface modes:

* IBSS

* Managed

* AP

* AP/VLAN

* WDS

* Monitor

* Mesh Point

Recommendation URL

Http://hostap.epitest.fi/hostapd/

Http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/hostapd

Https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/MasterMode

Http://hostap.epitest.fi/gitweb/gitweb.cgi? P = hostap. Git; A = blob_plain; F = hostapd/hostapd. conf