WEP keys encrypt wireless network data before transmission. Keys can be in HEX or ASCII format and have different lengths. WEP has been considered obsolete since the early 2000s due to security vulnerabilities. WPA and WPA2 are newer and more secure standards.
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) keys are a crucial part of the WEP standard, designed to add security to wireless networks. A single WEP key is used to encrypt and decrypt data before and after wireless transmission. Keys can have two different character formats and can be of different lengths. The WEP standard has proven to be vulnerable to several attacks capable of cracking a WEP key in minutes and has been considered obsolete since the early 2000s.
Because wireless networks use radio waves to transmit data, communications can be intercepted using a laptop or other device that can listen for radio waves at a specific frequency. The WEP standard, introduced in the late 1990s, prevents this by using “keys” to encrypt information before transmitting it over a wireless network. The same key is typically used for encryption, decryption, and authentication, so any outsider who lacks the correct key can only intercept an encrypted signal.
A standard WEP key can use hexadecimal (HEX) or American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) encoding. These terms refer to how letters and numbers are encoded into the binary 1s and 0s that computers understand. Hexadecimal keys can include any number from 0 to 9 and the letters A to F. ASCII characters include all letters of the English alphabet, numbers, and common symbols (#,@,!,& etc.). Some devices may only use HEX passwords, while others will accept both formats. Online tools and Wi-Fi routers can convert standard passwords to a HEX form for devices that only support one standard.
The length of a WEP key is determined by the type of WEP encryption used. The simplest form uses ten hexadecimal characters or five ASCII characters for a total of 40 bits of information. These 40 bits are then combined with a predefined set of 24 bits called the “initialization vector” for a total of 64 bits. For this reason, some manufacturers of wireless network devices refer to 64-bit WEP as WEP-40 or 40-bit WEP even though they all use 64-bit total. Most wireless devices also support a stronger version of WEP that uses 128 bits (104 user-defined bits plus 24-bit initialization vector) that allows for 26 HEX characters or 13 ASCII characters. Some devices support longer keystrokes, although this is not part of the official specification.
While still present on most network equipment, WEP suffers from serious security flaws and shouldn’t be used unless compatibility issues make it necessary. There are several attacks against the standard, and many are capable of cracking a WEP key in as little as a minute. As a result, a wireless network using WEP is only marginally more secure than a network without encryption. Most networking equipment sold since the mid-2000s supports a newer, more secure standard known as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or its successor, WPA2.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
