WPA2 vs WPA3: Why the Handshake Matters
WPA2 vs WPA3: Why the Handshake Matters A detailed breakdown of what changed between two generations of Wi-Fi security — and why the shift from a four-message exchange to a cryptographic dance called Dragonfly is a bigger deal than most people realize. 01 - Setting the Stage Wi-Fi security has been a moving target since the late 1990s. WEP collapsed under academic scrutiny. WPA was a temporary band-aid. WPA2 — introduced in 2004 — became the bedrock of wireless security for nearly two decades. And now WPA3, standardized in 2018, is gradually taking its place. But the transition is not just a version bump. WPA3 represents a fundamental rethinking of how devices authenticate each other on a wireless network. The centerpiece of that rethinking is the authentication handshake — the cryptographic ritual that establishes a shared secret before any real communication begins. Key insight: "The weakness of WPA2 was not a flaw in AES encryption — it was a flaw in how the keys we...