By default, the management information transmitted on a WLAN for establishing and operating data connections is unencrypted. Anybody within a WLAN cell can receive this information, even those who are not associated with an access point. Although this does not entail any risk for encrypted data connections, the injection of fake management information could severely disturb the communications within a WLAN cell.
The IEEE 802.11w standard encrypts this management information (protected management frames, PMF), meaning that potential attackers can no longer interfere with the communications if they don’t have the corresponding key.
Note: As of WPA3, management frames have to be encrypted, so this value is ignored there and is assumed to be set as "Mandatory". For WPA2, this is optional.
- SNMP ID:
- 2.20.3.14
- Console path:
- Setup > WLAN > Encryption
- Possible values:
- No
- Do not use PMF.
- optional
- Offer PMF. The client decides whether to use them.
- mandatory
- Use PMF
