Wi‑Fi Protected Setup (WPS), referred to as Wi‑Fi Simple Configuration in the specification, and branded as WPS, is a standard designed to ease the setup of Wi‑Fi networks in home and small office environments.
Created by Wi‑Fi Alliance, the purpose of the protocol is to allow home users who know little of wireless security and may be intimidated by the available security options to set up Wi‑Fi Protected Access, as well as making it easy to add new devices to an existing network without entering long passphrases. It is used by devices made by HP, Brother and Canon, especially for their printers. WPS is a wireless method that is used to connect certain Wi‑Fi devices, such as printers and security cameras, to the Wi‑Fi network without using any password. In addition, another way to connect is called WPS PIN; this is used by some devices to connect to the wireless network.
A major security flaw was revealed in December 2011 that affects wireless routers with the WPS PIN feature, which most recent models have enabled by default. The flaw allows a remote attacker to recover the WPS PIN in 4–10 hours with a brute-force attack and, with the WPS PIN, the network's WPA/WPA2 pre-shared key (PSK). Users have been urged to turn off the WPS PIN feature, although this may not be possible on some router models.
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