What is a major flaw of WEP encryption?

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption has a significant flaw that is recognized as making it vulnerable: it is considered easy to crack. This vulnerability arises from several inherent weaknesses in WEP's design, primarily due to its use of static keys and the weak initialization vector (IV) that is employed in the encryption process.

WEP relies on a combination of a shared secret key and an IV to encrypt data. However, the IV is often reused across sessions and is relatively short, which makes it susceptible to attacks. Techniques like statistical analysis can be employed to recover the original encryption key after capturing enough packets, which is relatively straightforward with modern computing power.

Moreover, the lack of strong safeguards against key replay attacks and vulnerabilities to dictionary attacks contribute to how easily WEP can be compromised. Consequently, security professionals recommend using more robust protocols like WPA2 for securing wireless networks, as they address the flaws present in WEP.

The recognition of WEP’s vulnerability further led to its deprecation in favor of more secure alternatives, reflecting a significant shift in wireless security practices.