Is SSID Involved in Authentication?

[bhalco]

Given an access point *not* broadcasting SSID, can clients authenticate without knowing the SSID?

Background: I installed a point-to-point bridge almost 2 years ago, using AR350s. SSID broadcast is disabled. Suddenly a few weeks ago, the logs of the root access point show successful authentification from 2 different MAC addresses. The connections are soon deauthenticated due to "inactivity". No association took place.

Either:

1) Authentication does not involve SSID, and these are simply random events. No real problem if this is the case.

or

2) SSID *is* involved, which means someone knows the SSID and is deliberately trying to connect to the bridge. In this case I will take some steps to counter the attempts.

I haven't been able to find an authoritative answer to this. Does anyone here know?

Bruce Halco

[rwcrowe · Accepted solution]

The SSID is not involved in any type of authentication in "open" mode. (No wep or encryption configured). The SSID is just a sign saying "this is the access point you are connecting to".

[bhalco]

(Yes, it's configured in "open" mode. Sorry I forgot to mention that)

That's the answer I was hoping for. The sequence of log entries didn't really *look* like an attack, but it made me a little nervous just the same.

Thanks.

Bruce Halco

[melisei]

If you had those SSIDs already cionfigured in a MU around that place then you can see it roaming to your 350s from time to time. The SSID not sent in beacons means that no guests will be accepted (MUs without SSID configured). The network will show the SSID only in the units with it configured. Otherwise, that network will come up but with "No SSID" as a name.

I hope this helps.

ME