Is there a standard that defines what is a valid SSID and password?
NetworkingWirelessSsidNetworking Problem Overview
We are developing a wireless n/w configuration UI and need to check if a SSID is a valid one? Are there any restrictions on the character set? length ? anything more..
Networking Solutions
Solution 1 - Networking
Section 7.3.2.1 of the 802.11-2007 specification (http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.11-2007.pdf) defines SSIDs.
A valid SSID is 0-32 octets with arbitrary contents. A 0-length SSID indicates the wildcard SSID (in probe request frames for instance).
There's no character set associated with the SSID - a 32-byte string of NUL-bytes is a valid SSID.
This implies:
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you should never use normal string functions when manipulating generic SSIDs (strcpy() and friends).
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you should not assume that the SSID is printable when, for instance, logging it to disk
Solution 2 - Networking
According to last standard 802.11-2012 (Section 6.3.11.2.2), it can be 0-32 octets with an unspecified or UTF8 encoding.