What key establishment protocol is used by WPA3, also known as Dragonfly Key Exchange?

What key establishment protocol is used by WPA3, also known as Dragonfly Key Exchange?

• A. Simultaneous Authentication of Equals
• B. Pre-Shared Key (PSK)
• C. EAP-TLS
• D. TLS

Answer: (A)

WPA3 uses a password-based key exchange called Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), also known as the Dragonfly handshake. SAE lets two devices prove they both know the password and derive a shared session key without sending the password itself over the air. That design protects against offline dictionary attacks because guessing the password isn’t something an attacker can verify without interacting with the handshake, and each session gets a fresh key, providing forward secrecy. This approach is what enables WPA3-Personal to securely establish encryption even with low-entropy passwords, unlike older methods that relied on a static pre-shared key. The other options describe different authentication or transport mechanisms (a static pre-shared key, EAP-TLS for enterprise with certificates, or TLS as a broad cryptographic protocol) and do not represent the Dragonfly SAE handshake used by WPA3.

WPA3 uses a password-based key exchange called Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), also known as the Dragonfly handshake. SAE lets two devices prove they both know the password and derive a shared session key without sending the password itself over the air. That design protects against offline dictionary attacks because guessing the password isn’t something an attacker can verify without interacting with the handshake, and each session gets a fresh key, providing forward secrecy. This approach is what enables WPA3-Personal to securely establish encryption even with low-entropy passwords, unlike older methods that relied on a static pre-shared key. The other options describe different authentication or transport mechanisms (a static pre-shared key, EAP-TLS for enterprise with certificates, or TLS as a broad cryptographic protocol) and do not represent the Dragonfly SAE handshake used by WPA3.