IEEE 802.11w

IEEE 802.11w is a proposed amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard to increase the security of its management frames.

802.11 is a set of IEEE standards that govern wireless networking transmission methods. They are commonly used today in their 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g versions to provide wireless connectivity in the home, office and some commercial establishments.
Current 802.11x standards define "frame" types for use in management and control of wireless links. IEEE 802.11w is the Protected Management Frames standard for the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. TGw is working on improving the IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control layer. The objective of this is to increase the security by providing data confidentiality of management frames, mechanisms that enable data integrity, data origin authenticity, and replay protection. These extensions will have interactions with IEEE 802.11r and IEEE 802.11u

Wireless LANs send system management information in unprotected frames, which makes them vulnerable. This standard will protect against network disruption caused by malicious systems that forge disassociation requests that appear to be sent by valid equipment