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I have recently bought a wifi range extender to improve the signal coverage through the house. When I set it up, I noticed the iOS 14 recognizes it as unsafe since it uses TKIP and advises to set it up to use AES instead. I did my research and according to the manufacturer, it seems the device automatically uses WPA2 for devices that support it, but there is a WPA-TKIP combination also available for older devices and there is no way to disable it.

So the question I've got, is how safe/unsafe it is to use it anyway, considering the fact that there are only a few mobile devices ever connected to it and all the rest are connected to the main router which uses WPA2? What real-world attacks am I exposing myself to and are they only limited to the extended network or is it possible for the attacker to also access the main one (the main router)?

I apologize if there are potential trivial things I don't know about this and I'm asking some rather obvious question, networking and security are not exactly my strong points. Appreciate the help.

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TKIP is deprecated since 2010, and practical attacks exists against it. You should not use it. Since you do not have devices that requires it, you have no reason to leave it activated and all the reasons to disable it. I suggest you look into your range extender manual for how to configure it.

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  • Thank you for the reply. As I stated, unfortunately it's not possible to configure the device to disable the "feature", updated it to the latest firmware and still no luck.
    – Ramin
    Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 6:08
  • @Ramin Then either you change your device, or you live with the fact than anybody in range of your wifi and with the motivation to do so can get into your local network and intercept you wireless communications.
    – A. Hersean
    Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 8:56
  • But would the interception risk be limited to the range extender and the devices connected to it only or could it somehow also put the main network (devices connected to the main router) at risk?
    – Ramin
    Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 12:27
  • @Ramin All the devices and their communications on the local network would be directly accessible to someone connected to this network.
    – A. Hersean
    Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 13:17

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