Simultaneous Authentication of Equals
A simultaneous authentication of equals (SAE) is a protocol used in WPA3 that
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provides stronger password protection from guessing attacks by third parties
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employs discrete logarithm cryptography to perform an efficient exchange that enables mutual authentication using a password, and
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resists offline dictionary attacks.
Feature History
|
Feature Name |
Release |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
WPA3 — SAE H2E with Identity PSK |
Cisco IOS XE 17.9.2 |
Added support for Identity PSK (iPSK) passphrase for SAE H2E authentication in local mode. iPSK replaces WLAN passphrase during SAE H2E authentication when configured. |
|
Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 Hash-to-Element (H2E) Support for SAE Authentication |
Cisco IOS XE 17.7.1 |
Introduced Hash-to-Element (H2E) support for SAE authentication. WLAN command options added: h2e , hnp , both-h2e-hnp (default). |
|
Wi-Fi Protected Access3 |
Cisco IOS XE 16.12.1 |
WPA3 is the latest version of Wi-Fi ProtectedAccess (WPA), which is a suite of protocols and technologies that provide authentication and encryption for Wi-Fi networks. |
WPA3 and SAE in Wi-Fi Security
WPA3 is the latest version of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), which is a suite of protocols and technologies that provide authentication and encryption for Wi-Fi networks.
WPA3 leverages SAE to provide stronger protections for users against password guessing attempts by third parties.
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WPA3-Personal protects users through robust password-based authentication, making brute-force dictionary attacks more difficult.
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WPA3-Enterprise provides higher-grade security protocols for sensitive data networks.
When the client connects to the AP, they perform an SAE exchange. If the exchange is successful, both parties create a cryptographically strong key, which is used to derive the session key. The client and AP complete commit and confirm phases. After commitment, the devices transition to confirm states whenever a new session key is generated. This method uses forward secrecy so that if an intruder cracks one key, the other session keys remain secure.
![]() Note |
Home SSIDs configured using the OEAP GUI do not support WPA3 security in Cisco IOS-XE 17.6 and 17.7 releases. |

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