Subject: Key management in 802.11 drivers
To: None <tech-net@netbsd.org>
From: Castor Fu <castor@geocast.com>
List: tech-net
Date: 01/22/2001 05:42:38
I Was talking to someone about key management with 802.11 cards, and he
had the impression that the keys were supposed to be stored write-only
in NVRAM on the cards, and that this might even be required by the 
standard.

If this  were true keys need never be visible to the end user or operating
system -- the cards could be programmed by a central administrator and 
distributed, which is kind of cool.

Our wi driver maintains a private copy of the keys, and actually allows one
to view this private copy, and always initializes the key data.  Does anyone
know if things really need to be this way?  I suppose a little 
experimentation would tell us.