Invalid BSSID handling?

Invalid BSSID handling?

[Alina Friedrichsen]

Hello,

what BSSID addresses should be treaded as invalid, by manual setting? H=
andling in mac80211 now is really magic. Multicast MAC addresses are ac=
cepted but the IEEE80211_STA_BSSID_SET flag isn't set, so that they are=
 handled as if they are automatically detected and selected.

The madwifi accepts all BSSIDs except 00:00:00:00:00:00 and ff:ff:ff:ff=
:ff:ff. Should mac80211 allow all BSSIDs like madwifi, or should it bet=
ter treat multicast MAC addresses as 00:00:00:00:00:00, or an other han=
dling?

Regards
Alina

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Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger geh=F6rt? Der kann`s mit all=
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Re: Invalid BSSID handling?

[Johannes Berg]

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On Sat, 2009-01-03 at 01:00 +0100, Alina Friedrichsen wrote:

> The madwifi accepts all BSSIDs except 00:00:00:00:00:00 and
> ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff. Should mac80211 allow all BSSIDs like madwifi, or
> should it better treat multicast MAC addresses as 00:00:00:00:00:00,
> or an other handling?

Even though the standard asks you to use locally administered addresses
for IBSS, I don't see this as a requirement since they just want to
guarantee uniqueness and if you're assigning manually you rely on
different methods for uniqueness.

Cf. 7.1.3.3.3 in 802.11-2007 (which you can download for free)

johannes

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Re: Invalid BSSID handling?

[Jouni Malinen]

On Sat, Jan 03, 2009 at 11:57:17PM +0100, Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-01-03 at 01:00 +0100, Alina Friedrichsen wrote:
> > The madwifi accepts all BSSIDs except 00:00:00:00:00:00 and
> > ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff. Should mac80211 allow all BSSIDs like madwifi, or
> > should it better treat multicast MAC addresses as 00:00:00:00:00:00,
> > or an other handling?
> 
> Even though the standard asks you to use locally administered addresses
> for IBSS, I don't see this as a requirement since they just want to
> guarantee uniqueness and if you're assigning manually you rely on
> different methods for uniqueness.

For locally administered bit, I would agree, but I would still avoid
using any multicast address as the BSSID. It could cause undesired
behavior for RX filtering.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA