pre-shared key (2024)

FAQs

What is a common problem with using pre-shared keys? ›

A PSK network is vulnerable to a wide variety of attacks including: Over-the-Air (OTA) attacks, especially Man-In-The-Middle attacks. Brute force attacks using free security tools like Aircrack-ng. Simple dictionary attacks.

Definitions: A secret key that has been established between the parties who are authorized to use it by means of some secure method (e.g., using a secure manual-distribution process or automated key-establishment scheme). A secret key that has previously been established.

It utilizes a pre-shared key, also known as a passphrase or password, that is shared among the network administrator and the users of the network. This key is used to authenticate devices and establish an encrypted connection between the client and the access point.

You can use a pre-shared key (also called a shared secret or PSK) to authenticate the Cloud VPN tunnel to your peer VPN gateway. As a security best practice, we recommend that you generate a strong 32-character pre-shared key. For more information about Cloud VPN, see the Cloud VPN overview.

IPsec has two ways of authenticating a peer--via a pre-shared key or a certificate. While pre-shared keys are easier to work with, they are generally considered less secure than a certificate. Pros: Convenience--no need to go through the complicated process of obtaining a certificate.

The weakness within this is that the majority of the information required to compute the plaintext PSK passphrase can be enumerated either through packet sniffing the access point (for example the SSID) or by capturing the traffic of the 4-way handshake itself.

Note: The WEP key or WPA/WPA2 preshared key/passphrase is not the same as the password for the access point. The password lets you access the access point settings. The WEP key or WPA/WPA2 preshared key/passphrase allows printers and computers to join your wireless network.

A pre-shared key is basically just a shared secret or password that is used to authenticate an individual attempting to join a wireless network (no username or identification or than the key is required).

Rotating your PSKs as soon as an employee leaves an organization is essential, but this still won't cover 100% of security breaches due to improper key management. An employee can also connect his personal devices to the network through a PSK, which leaves the network even more vulnerable.

Pre-shared key authentication uses a pre-shared key to authenticate the communicating peers, and a negotiated cipher and secret shared key for encrypting and decrypting the data. This mode is also known as TLS-PSK. The pre-shared key is a string that can be any word or phrase that does not include a comma.

How do I set a Preshared key? ›

Configure a preshared key on a VPN server

Right-click the server that you will configure with the preshared key, and then click Properties. Click Security. Click to select the Allow Custom IPSec Policy for L2TP connection check box. In the Preshared key box, type the preshared key value.

"Shared key" means that the same key is used by several party. It doesn't tell you how the key was distributed among them. "pre-shared key" means the key has been shared before the current operational context.

When sharing your password with someone else, you risk granting that individual access to every account you own with the same password — and probably even those with similar passwords. If one of these passwords is for a social media platform, an angry colleague could change your profile picture to embarrass you.

Passwords such as “123456”, “qwerty”, “admin”, “admin@123”, and “password” consistently remain among the most commonly used passwords. If these passwords are reused across multiple accounts, it becomes even easier for attackers to gain access to sensitive corporate information.

The primary concern with L2TP is that some VPNs do not implement the protocol effectively, using pre-shared keys that can be downloaded from the service's website. An attacker could use the pre-shared key to impersonate a VPN server and then monitor encrypted traffic or even inject code into the VPN tunnel.