Given: ABC Company secures their network with WPA2-Personal authentication and AES-CCMP encryption.
What part of the 802.11 frame is always protected from eavesdroppers by this type of security?
Correct Answer: A
In WPA2-Personal with AES-CCMP:
The MSDU (MAC Service Data Unit), which includes the payload from Layer 3 and above, is encrypted.
This protects the actual application data (e.g., web content, email).
Frame headers (MAC headers) are not encrypted.
Incorrect:
B). MPDU includes MAC headers, which are not encrypted.
C). PPDU includes preamble and physical-layer components, which are never encrypted.
D). PSDU includes the MAC header and frame body; again, headers are not encrypted.
References:
CWSP-208 Study Guide, Chapter 3 (Frame Protection)
IEEE 802.11 Frame Structure Guide