PEAP Authentication Scheme

The LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol) is a popular non-TLS (Transport Layer Security) authentication scheme introduced by Cisco in later versions of their firmware belonging to the Aironet access point product range. This protocol lacks point to point protection which leaves it open to dictionary attacks at the credentials authentication stage. With the inauguration of PEAP (Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol) authentication in the IAS (Internet Authentication Service) component of Windows Server 2003/2008, these weaknesses are addressed. Furthermore, a server-side digital certificate is able to support many clients single handedly – without the use of an installed certificate on the client-side.