AES encryption support for softAP mode in ESP32 (IDFGH-4092)

[coolesthead]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I've updated my phone to iOS14 and I tried connecting to the soft AP of ESP32. I had chosen WPA2_PSK as AUTH mode. When I connect my phone, iOS is giving the warning that, WiFi is using WPA2(TKIP) as encryption and suggesting to use WPA2(AES)/WPA3. Since WPA3 is not available for softAP, I'm requesting to support WPA2(AES) for softAP mode.

Describe the solution you'd like

Adding support for AES for WPA2_PSK or adding WPA3 as auth mode for softAP

Describe alternatives you've considered

I don't think any alternatives available as far this is concerned.

Additional context

iOS13 didn't show warning if we use WPA2(TKIP). Only after the iOS14 update, they marked WPA2(TKIP) as unsafe. Only WPA2(AES) or WPA3 are considered as safe.

[Alvin1Zhang]

Thanks for raising this feature request.

[sagb2015]

@coolesthead The softAP already supports AES. By default, it uses mixed mode (CCMP+TKIP) when security is used. iOS13 maybe cribbing because of the mixed mode. We will add additional parameter in the config to choose the cipher-suite which is currently missing. WPA3 development for SoftAP is in progress.

[coolesthead]

Thanks @sagb2015 this helps.

[AxelLin]

@coolesthead The softAP already supports AES. By default, it uses mixed mode (CCMP+TKIP) when security is used.

Hi @sagb2015
Is there any workaround to make softAP use AES instead the default mixed mode?

[lukasmalkmus]

Interested in this as well. Mainly to get rid of the >= iOS13 warnings.

[zinke-ct-video]

+1 Our business is also interested in this feature.

[AxelLin]

WPA3 for softap is a feature request.
But, IMHO, allow config softAP as AES should be consider as a bug fix.
When will this get fix?

[kapilkedawat]

@AxelLin Please note mixed mode in WPA2 is a valid scenario and not a bug.

We will provide a new option to set pairwise cipher in softAP configuration so that users can select TKIP/CCMP/TKIP+CCMP as they require(with the default option as TKIP+CCMP).

[AxelLin]

@AxelLin Please note mixed mode in WPA2 is a valid scenario and not a bug.

This is not what I complaint.

We will provide a new option to set pairwise cipher in softAP configuration so that users can select TKIP/CCMP/TKIP+CCMP as they require(with the default option as TKIP+CCMP).

This is indeed what I complaint and I think it is a bug. (AFAIK, non-esp32 sdks can allow user to set this setting).
#5963 (comment)
And it has been more than 3 months since above link mentioned to add support for allowing choose the cipher-suite.