CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA) Practice

What does TKIP aim to replace?

1. AES

2. WEP

3. SSL

4. IPSec

The correct answer is: WEP

TKIP, or Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, was introduced as a part of the IEEE 802.11i standard to enhance the security of wireless networks. It specifically aims to replace WEP, which is Wired Equivalent Privacy, a protocol that was widely used but had significant security vulnerabilities. WEP utilized static encryption keys, making it susceptible to various attacks such as key reuse and IV (Initialization Vector) attacks. TKIP addresses these vulnerabilities by implementing a per-packet keying mechanism, which generates a unique encryption key for each data packet. This improvement provides a stronger level of security for wireless communication by ensuring that even if one key is compromised, it does not jeopardize the security of subsequent packets. In contrast, options like AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), and IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) serve different roles and contexts in the security infrastructure. AES is a symmetric encryption standard that can be used independently of TKIP. SSL is a protocol for establishing secure connections over a computer network, often used in web communications, while IPSec is used primarily for securing IP communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet. None of these directly relate to the specific improvements TKIP brings to replace WEP's weaknesses.