How many characters wpa password

Let's restrict this down to a maximum length of The number of possible passwords then becomes: Let's build a rig that tests 13 giga-hashes per second. If you dedicate a box with 2 fairly recent GPUs to the cause this is currently a feasible number.

Next, go to your favourite spot on the equator. You're going to walk around the world along the equator, but take a very leisurely pace of one meter every billion years. After you complete your round the world trip, remove one ice cube worth of water 10 ml of water from the Pacific Ocean.

Now do the same thing again: walk around the world at one billion years per step, removing one ice cube worth of water from the Pacific Ocean each time you circle the globe. Continue until the ocean is empty. When it is, take one sheet of paper standard paper thickness is 0. Do this until the stack of paper reaches from the Earth to the Sun.

Now take a glance at the number of passwords that you still need to test. The 5 left-most characters in that number have now gone from to You're going to need to repeat the entire process another times before you've exhausted the keyspace.

I know the key space is large, and I've heard all of the comparisons to walking around the earth, digging holes to the sun and what have you. I really just wanted to know the entire character set because I didnt see it posted anywhere on the net.

Wow I did not know that. Cooper is right about the Unicode characters. I had to look this up. You can add your favorite Futhark symbols, Kanji, Sanscrit. So you can use the entire unicode set which is 1,, which would make your password significantly secure than just using ascii characters. I typically keep a Latin character dictionary with English, German, and Spanish words.

Brute forcing a full unicode password would fairly difficult. Hypothetically I could write a program to do it. But without the hardware to crunch all of the data it wouldn't be practical. When you use Unicode the storage space for your password characters doesn't magically become larger.

It's 63 bytes. Unicode can use multiple bytes to represent a single character, but your WPA password, represented as bytes, cannot exceed Which is just ridiculously large. It's a shame so few people manage to pick genuinely good passwords. So only characters that can be represented by a single byte. So when it's only 8bit characters they're not actually unicode their code page ascii values. Which are languages specific where you are swapping out extended ascii chars ie if it were Greek you are swapping out AF or char -char All devices on a local Wi-Fi network share a common key.

Setting up security on a Wi-Fi network router , wireless hotspot , or client device involves choosing from a list of security options, then entering a key string that the device stores. Wi-Fi security keys exist in two basic forms:. ASCII keys are also called passphrases because people often choose easy-to-remember words and phrases for their keys — for example, ilovewifi and hispeed Wi-Fi devices convert both ASCII and hex keys into binary numbers that become the actual key value used by the Wi-Fi hardware to encrypt data sent over the wireless link.

Some Wi-Fi devices support only hex keys and disallow entering passphrase characters or report an error when you're trying to save a passphrase. The most common security options for home networking include:. Wi-Fi key restrictions depend on the options chosen as follows:. Additional rules apply to all of the above options when making Wi-Fi keys:. To ensure all devices on a home or local network are configured correctly with the same Wi-Fi key first set a key for the router or another access point , then systematically update each client one by one to use the matching string.

Exact steps for applying a Wi-Fi key to a router or other device vary slightly depending on the specific hardware involved, but as a general rule:. Because the sequence of numbers and letters in a Wi-Fi key can be long, mistyping and forgetting them is common. To find the key string currently in use for a wireless home network, log in to the local router as an administrator and look up the value from the appropriate console page.

A device can't authenticate with the router unless it has the correct key, so you may have to connect your device to the router using an Ethernet cable. Some home routers come with Wi-Fi security options turned on and default keys pre-installed.

Such a router typically has a sticker on the bottom showing the key string. Although these keys are private and generally safe to use within a home, the stickers enable anyone inside a home to see its network settings and connect additional client devices to the network without your knowledge. To avoid this risk, override the key on such a router with a different string when you first install it.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Can a WPA key be shorter than 8 characters? Ask Question. Asked 11 years, 3 months ago. Active 11 years, 3 months ago.

Viewed 30k times. Improve this question. Should be migrated to SU. I don't know if it is possible, but it is almost certainly a bad idea. A password that small would be easy to guess through brute force. You may want to try to strongly encourage him to use something much longer. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes.