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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Intermediate

Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE)

Password-authenticated key exchange (Dragonfly) used by WPA3-Personal.

Definition

SAE requires active interaction with the access point for each password guess, so captured handshakes cannot be cracked offline. It provides forward secrecy, protecting past sessions if the password is later revealed. Early implementations had side-channel flaws (Dragonblood) that were patched, and hash-to-element is now preferred.

Example

Capturing a WPA3-SAE handshake does not let an attacker run hashcat against it offline.

Exam tip

SAE replaces PSK authentication in WPA3 and defeats offline dictionary attacks.

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