OWE(Opportunistic Wireless Encryption) Support in iPad/iPones

I’ve never heard of it. There is Opportunistic TLS, which is a WEAKER form of Transport Layer Security encryption, weaker because the initial handshake is done in plaintext and thus susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks; it works with normally unencrypted communications between devices not using a full TLS port. However, it should work by default on any device from Apple or anyone else. The preferred security approach is TLS 1.3. Opportunistic TLS will be recognized by most web browsers, but is less secure than HTTPS.

What helps even more in public Wi-Fi is the fact that all communications between apps on any Apple device are required to use TLS 1.2 (minimum), AKA SSL for web access and TLS for email, which is more secure than what this paper describes. It means that there is end-to-end encryption public key encryption between the device and any servers it accesses. The only requirement on the user is to only visit websites that support https:, but this is now being enforced by all reputable websites and browsers anyway. So what the paper describes is a solution in search of a problem. IETF has stated that it is NOT an established Internet standard. I’m sure if it ever becomes a standard Apple will implement it. You can try asking Apple directly, as no one in this user-to-user forum would know what Apple’s plans are.

i cannot find any apple reference on owe. one source says that apple does not support owe yet but samsung does.

wifi alliance has adopted owe as Opportunistic Wireless Encryption Specification

https://www.wi-fi.org/download.php?file=/sites/default/files/private/Opportunistic_Wireless_Encryption_Specification_v1.0.pdf

they have two documents on the subject

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open™: Transparent Wi-Fi® protections without complexity

https://www.wi-fi.org/beacon/dan-harkins/wi-fi-certified-enhanced-open-transparent-wi-fi-protections-without-complexity

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open™ delivers data protection in open Wi-Fi® networks

https://www.wi-fi.org/news-events/newsroom/wi-fi-certified-enhanced-open-delivers-data-protection-in-open-wi-fi-networks

found one doc that states "The Galaxy S10e now knows it can send an Open System Authentication Request to this hidden SSID. Other devices, such as my iPad (running iPadOS beta, which supports WPA3-Personal but not OWE!) connect seamlessly to the standard open SSID."

https://wificoops.com/2019/08/05/wi-fi-security-enhancements-part-2-enhanced-open-owe/

does apple support RFC 8110 - Opportunistic Wireless Encryption?

https://tools.ietf.org/pdf/rfc8110.pdf

maybe especially helpful in public wifi.

thanks

eliot