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FreeRADIUS for WiFi hotspots

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Article from ADMIN 19/2014

By Carsten Schnober

Tired of contending with shared passwords for wireless networks? Use WPA Enterprise and a FreeRADIUS server to set up a user password solution for wireless users.

Do you know someone who keeps the WiFi password on a piece of paper under their keyboard? Or somewhere equally as insecure? Sloppy password practices are a nightmare for any admin; controlling access to the company network is impossible with a shared password, even if you have a manageable number of employees.

How do you implement security on a WiFi network without a shared password? One solution is IEEE 802.1X, a standard mechanism for network authentication. For enterprise WiFi hotspots, this login procedure usually goes by the name of WPA Enterprise (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Some hotspots support a user-specific configuration with WPA Enterprise.

In most cases, the user database is not managed by the hotspot itself. Instead, the hotspot queries a RADIUS server on the same network (Figure 2): The central user administration actually takes place on the RADIUS server. If you take on a new employee, you enter their account on the RADIUS server, WiFi access included.

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