CWAP-404 CWNP Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The default 802.11 authentication method for a STA when using Pre-RSNA is Open System. This is the simplest and most common authentication method, which does not provide any security or encryption. In Open System authentication, the STA sends an Authentication Request frame to the AP, and the AP responds with an Authentication Response frame with a status code of success. After this, the STA can proceed to association with the AP . References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 181; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 183.

All data frames will be retransmitted in this scenario. This is because the AP uses a Block Ack (BA) mechanism to acknowledge the receipt of multiple data frames from a client in a single frame. The BA contains a bitmap that indicates which data frames were received correctly and which were not. If the BA is not received by the AP due to frame corruption, the AP will assume that none of the data frames were received by the client and will retransmit all of them. The other options are not correct, as they do not account for the loss of the BA or the use of the bitmap. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide CWAP-404], Chapter 6: 802.11 Frame Exchanges, page 167-168

The function of the PHY preamble is to allow the receiver to detect and synchronize with the signal. The PHY preamble is a part of the PPDU that is transmitted before the PHY header and the PSDU. The PHY preamble consists of a series of training fields that help the receiver to adjust its parameters, such as frequency, timing, and gain, to match the incoming signal. The PHY preamble also helps the receiver to estimate the channel conditions and noise level. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide CWAP-404], Chapter 4: 802.11 Physical Layer, page 99-100

It is possible to distinguish between OFDM 20 MHz transmissions and HT 20 MHz transmissions when looking at an FFT plot. OFDM and HT are two different modulation schemes used by 802.11 WLANs. OFDM is used by legacy 802.11a/g devices, while HT is used by newer 802.11n/ac devices. OFDM and HT have different spectral characteristics that can be observed on an FFT plot. OFDM transmissions have a flat spectrum with sharp edges, while HT transmissions have a tapered spectrum with rounded edges. This is because HT uses guard intervals and cyclic prefixes to reduce inter-symbol interference and improve performance. The other options are not correct, as they do not describe different modulation schemes or channel widths that can be distinguished on an FFT plot. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide CWAP-404], Chapter 3: Spectrum Analysis, page 70-71

The most likely cause of higher airtime utilization on the first 20 MHz of the 80 MHz channel is non-Wi-Fi interference. Non-Wi-Fi interference can prevent an AP from using its full channel width, as it will degrade the signal quality and increase the noise floor on some parts of the channel. This will force the AP to fall back to a narrower channel width, such as 20 MHz or 40 MHz, to maintain communication with its clients. The waterfall plot can help identify non-Wi-Fi interference by showing spikes or bursts of RF energy on specific frequencies or sub-channels. The other options are not correct, as they do not explain why only the first 20 MHz of the channel has higher airtime utilization. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide], Chapter 3: Spectrum Analysis, page 74-75

The configured Minimum Basic Rate (MBR) of a BSS can be identified by looking at the Supported Rates and Extended Supported Rates elements in a Beacon frame. A Beacon frame is a type of management frame that is transmitted by an AP to advertise its presence and capabilities to potential clients. A Beacon frame contains various information elements (IEs) that provide details about the BSS configuration and operation. The Supported Rates andExtended Supported Rates IEs list the data rates that are supported by the AP for data transmission. The MBR is the lowest data rate among these supported rates that is required for all clients to join and communicate with the BSS. The MBR is usually marked with a flag bit in these IEs to indicate its mandatory status. The other options are not correct, as they do not exist or do not indicate the MBR of a BSS. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide CWAP-404], Chapter 5: 802.11 MAC Sublayer, page 123-124

Display filters are applied after the capture is completed and they only hide the packets from view. The filtered packets are still present in the capture file and can be enabled for view later by changing or removing the display filter. This is an advantage over capture-time filters, which discard the packets that do not match the filter criteria and cannot be recovered later34 References:

CWAP-403 Study Guide, Chapter 2: Protocol Analysis, page 37

CWAP-403 Objectives, Section 2.3: Apply display filters

The beamformee transmits a Feedback Matrix within the Compressed Beamforming frame to the beamformer. The Feedback Matrix contains information about the channel state between the beamformee and each spatial stream of the beamformer. This information is used by the beamformer to adjust its transmit weights and optimize its signal for the beamformee34. References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 11: 802.11n/ac/ax PHYsical Layer Frame Exchanges, page 4033; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 11: 802.11n/ac/ax PHYsical Layer Frame Exchanges, page 4064.

 In the 2.4 GHz band, probe requests are usually sent at the minimum basic rate from an unassociated STA. A probe request is a type of management frame that is transmitted by a STA to discover available BSSs in its vicinity. A probe request can be sent on one or more channels in either passive or active scanning mode. In passive scanning mode, a STA listens for beacon frames from APs on each channel. In active scanning mode, a STA sends probe requests on each channel and waits for probe responses from APs. A probe request is usually sent at the minimum basic rate, which is the lowest data rate among the supported rates that is required for all STAs to join and communicate with a BSS. The minimum basic rate can vary depending on the configuration of each BSS, but it is typically one of these values: 1 Mbps, 2 Mbps, 5.5 Mbps, or 11 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. The other options are not correct, as they do not reflect how probe requests are usually sent in the 2.4 GHz band. MCS 0 is a modulation and coding scheme used by 802.11n/ac devices in either band, but it is not a data rate per se. 6 Mbps is a data rate used by OFDM devices in either band, but it is not usually configured as a minimum basic rate in the 2.4 GHz band. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide CWAP-404], Chapter 5: 802.11 MAC Sublayer, page 123-124

RTS is not a valid acknowledgement frame. RTS stands for Request To Send, and it is a control frame that is used to initiate an RTS/CTS exchange before sending a data frame. The purpose of an RTS/CTS exchange is to reserve the medium for a data transmission and avoid collisions with hidden nodes. An acknowledgement frame is a control frame that is used to confirm the successful reception of a data frame or a block of data frames. The valid acknowledgement frames are CTS (Clear To Send), Ack (Acknowledgement), and Block Ack (Block Acknowledgement) . References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 186; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 187; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 189; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 190.

The HT protection mode in which an AP is operating can be identified by looking at the HT Operations element in a Beacon frame. The HT Operations element is a part of the Beacon frame that contains information about the High Throughput (HT) capabilities and operation of an 802.11n BSS. The HT Operations element has a field called HT Protection, which indicates how the BSS protects its HT transmissions from interference or collisions with non-HT devices or BSSs. The HT Protection field can have four values: No Protection, Nonmember Protection, 20 MHz Protection, or Non-HT Mixed Mode. The other options are not correct, as they do not contain information about the HT protection mode. The HT Protection element does not exist, the ERP Information element is used for Extended Rate PHY (ERP) protection mode for 802.11g devices, and the HT Capabilities element is used for indicating the supported HT features of an individual device. References: [Wireless Analysis Professional Study Guide CWAP-404], Chapter 5: 802.11 MAC Sublayer, page 125-126

The Group Key Handshake consists of two frames excluding any Ack frames that may be required. The Group Key Handshake is used to distribute and update the Group Temporal Key (GTK) for encrypting broadcast and multicast traffic. The AP initiates the Group Key Handshake by sending a Group Key Message 1 frame to a STA, which contains the new GTK and other information. The STA responds with a Group Key Message 2 frame to the AP, which confirms the receipt of the GTK and other information. After this, both the AP and the STA can use the new GTK for encryption and decryption of broadcast and multicast traffic . References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 7: 802.11 Security, page 246; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 7: 802.11 Security, page 247.

The STA is discovering a list of available BSSs by sending a Probe Request with an empty SSID element. This is also known as a broadcast Probe Request, as it does not specify any particular SSID to probe for. Any AP that receives this Probe Request will respond with a Probe Response containing its own SSID and other information about its BSS. This way, the STA can learn about all the BSSs in its vicinity and choose which one to associate with . References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 191; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 6: MAC Sublayer Frame Exchanges, page 193.

The 4-way handshake is the process that establishes the pairwise transient key (PTK) between the client and the AP in WPA2-PSK. The PTK is derived from the PSK, the SSID, and some random numbers exchanged in the handshake frames. The PTK is used to encrypt and decrypt the data frames between the client and the AP. Therefore, in order to decrypt WPA2-PSK data packets, a protocol analyzer needs to capture the 4-way handshake frames and have the PSK and SSID configured in the analyzer software12 References:

CWAP-404 Study Guide, Chapter 3: 802.11 MAC Layer Frame Formats and Technologies, page 87

CWAP-404 Objectives, Section 3.5: Analyze security exchanges

A STA that supports 802.11k Radio Measurement would send a Neighbor Request to an AP to request a list of neighboring APs which the STA can use as roaming candidates. A Neighbor Request is an Action frame that contains a subelement specifying the type of information that the STA wants to receive from the AP. A Neighbor Report is an Action frame that contains a subelement with a list of neighboring APs that match the criteria specified in the Neighbor Request. The Neighbor Report provides information such as BSSID, channel, operating class, and PHY type of each neighboring AP. This information helps the STA to perform intelligent roaming decisions based on signal quality, load, and compatibility . References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 12: 802.11k/v/r/u/w/ai Amendments, page 434; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 12: 802.11k/v/r/u/w/ai Amendments, page 435.

An HE TB PPDU (High Efficiency Trigger-Based Packet Data Unit) is used to respond with an uplink transmission to an MU-RTS trigger frame in the 802.11ax PHY (Physical Layer). An MU-RTS trigger frame is a frame that initiates a multi-user transmission opportunity (MU-TXOP) by requesting multiple stations (STAs) to send clear-to-send (CTS) frames on different spatial streams or resource units (RUs). An HE TB PPDU is a frame that contains data from multiple STAs that have been allocated RUs by an MU-RTS trigger frame or another type of trigger frame. An HE SU PPDU (High Efficiency Single User Packet Data Unit) is a frame that contains data from a single STA using all available spatial streams or RUs. An HE MU PPDU (High Efficiency Multi User Packet Data Unit) is a frame that contains data from multiple STAs using different spatial streams or RUs without being triggered by another frame. A VHT PPDU (Very High Throughput Packet Data Unit) is a frame that uses the 802.11ac PHY and does not support multi-user transmissions.References:

CWAP-404 Study Guide, Chapter 3: 802.11 MAC Layer Frame Formats and Technologies, page 101

CWAP-404 Objectives, Section 3.4: Analyze multi-user transmissions

CWAP-404 Study Guide, Chapter 3: 802.11 MAC Layer Frame Formats and Technologies, page 99

In a protocol analyzer, you would find an indication that a frame was transmitted as part of an A-MPDU by looking at the Aggregation flag in the Radio Tap Header. The Radio Tap Header is a pseudo-header that is added by some wireless capture devices to provide additional information about the physical layer characteristics of a frame. The Aggregation flag is one of the fields in this header, and it indicates whether the frame belongs to an A-MPDU or not. If the flag is set to 1, it means that the frame is part of an A-MPDU; if it is set to 0, it means that the frame is not part of an A-MPDU . References: CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 9: PHY Layer Frame Formats andTechnologies, page 303; CWAP-404 Certified Wireless Analysis Professional Study and Reference Guide, Chapter 9: PHY Layer Frame Formats and Technologies, page 304.