WPA3-Personal replaces WPA2-PSK with which mechanism?

• A. RSA-PSS
• B. SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals)
• C. DHE-RSA
• D. ECDSA-SHA256

Answer: (B)

WPA3-Personal replaces the static pre-shared key with a password-based mutual authentication method that provides stronger protection. This mechanism is SAE, Simultaneous Authentication of Equals, also known as the Dragonfly handshake. In SAE, the client and access point prove knowledge of the shared password through a secure exchange without sending the password itself. Each session derives a fresh, ephemeral shared secret, giving forward secrecy and preventing offline dictionary attacks because an attacker cannot test guesses from captured handshakes without online interaction with the devices. The other options are cryptographic techniques used for signatures or different key-exchange setups in other contexts, not the password-based mutual authentication method used here.