[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#655972: Creating a new wireless network with WPA results in an unsecured network instead

[Josh Triplett]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 12:49:32AM +1100, Josh Triplett wrote:
> I followed the following steps:
> 
> - Connect to a wired network.
> - Click the network-manager-gnome icon, and select "Create New Wireless
>   Network..."
> - Type a network name.
> - Select "WPA & WPA2 Personal".
> - Click "Show password".
> - Paste in a secure password (from pwgen -s 12).
> - Click "Create".
> - Observe that NetworkManager's icon for the network includes the lock
>   icon indicating a secure network.
> - Attempt to connect to the network from my N900.
> - Observe that network icon shows lack of security.
> - Observe that I can connect to the network and access the Internet
>   through the network without providing the previously-specified
>   password.
> 
> Note that creating a network using WEP results in a WEP-"secured"
> network, rather than an unsecured network.  This issue only seems to
> happen when attempting to create a WPA network.

Investigating further, I discovered that if I use the
nm-connection-editor to manually create a shared network with WPA and
Infrastructure mode, it doesn't show up as an available network in the
"Create New Wireless Network..." dialog.  If I change it to Ad-Hoc mode,
it shows up.  Some searching suggests that problems exist with WPA
networks in Ad-Hoc mode, which might explain why NM couldn't manage it.
However, it should have failed closed by refusing to create a network,
rather than failing open by creating an insecure network.

- Josh Triplett