Help with encrypting PMF management frames

Help with encrypting PMF management frames

[Ben Greear]

Hello,

My variant of ath10k uses the normal 'native-wifi' tx path for management frames.
Internally in the firmware, it seems that the management TID is flagged to expect
raw frames, and I think that is why I see Action frames on-air that are not actually
encrypted but which have some space added to their packet that should be filled in by
the hw-crypt engine.

Is there a way to get mac80211 to software-crypt just management-tid PMF frames?

So far, I have not been able to find the correct place in the tx logic of
mac80211...

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com

Re: Help with encrypting PMF management frames

[Ben Greear]

On 6/6/19 9:54 AM, Ben Greear wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> My variant of ath10k uses the normal 'native-wifi' tx path for management frames.
> Internally in the firmware, it seems that the management TID is flagged to expect
> raw frames, and I think that is why I see Action frames on-air that are not actually
> encrypted but which have some space added to their packet that should be filled in by
> the hw-crypt engine.
> 
> Is there a way to get mac80211 to software-crypt just management-tid PMF frames?
> 
> So far, I have not been able to find the correct place in the tx logic of
> mac80211...
> 
> Thanks,
> Ben
> 

Ok, I found the issue.  It seems the ath10k hardware refuses to encrypt
management frames unless they are sent in RAW mode (nwifi mgt frames are sent
w/out encryption for whatever reason).

So, the fix is in the ath10k driver (and just my driver I suppose, stock
driver uses a different API for mgt frames that eventually is raw-tx down in
the firmware).

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com