Forum Discussion

busted's avatar
busted
Reel Rookie
5 years ago
Solved

When will WPA3 support be available on Roku?

Hello all! After purchasing a RokuTV and trying to get it online I discovered that it only works with 802.11ac (no big deal) and WPA2. Although I setup a temporary router with WPA2 to verify that th...
tv & player wifi
  • StreamerUser's avatar
    StreamerUser
    5 years ago

    Claiming the hardware or unit as a whole isnt their responsibility is a pretty brazen false claim, especially considering its their manufacturer's warranty that covers the device - not Roku's.

    What's even stranger is that you are inclined to agree with them.   Roku did not make your TV - it did not manufacture the constituent physical components nor assemble them.

    Roku's entire contribution is licensing the RokuOS software to the (unknown) manufacturer.

    WiFi Certification involves hardware products - not software (e.g. Microsoft Windows is not WiFi Certified). 

    WPA3 (a WiFi Allliance standard) is a requirement for WiFi certification as of July 2020 (and optional prior to then), but Roku doesnt WiFi certify their products (nor do their competitors), so they dont have any real impetus to include WPA3 support (nor do their competitors).

    Regardless, since Roku doesnt make Roku TVs (the manufacturers do) and since WiFi certification only certifies hardware units, the Roku TV manufacturer would have to certify their TVs (and thus have to meet WPA3 certification requirements).

    So if a product isnt WiFi certified, WPA3 support is entirely "optional" (discretion of the manufacturer), which is (one reason) why so many products are still sold without it.

    Yes, Roku would have to provide OS-level support, but since they dont WiFi certify their products, there is no rush to include the support (a Roku TV manufacturer would have to demand it, and they would only likely do so only if they wanted to WiFi certify their Roku TV).

    Finally, WPA3 isnt very secure (re: Dragonblood et al) and is still a WIP (Work-in-Progress), which is another reason there is no great rush to include support for it:

    https://www.snbforums.com/threads/are-all-the-known-wpa3-security-flaws-fixed-now.73290/

    Not sure what you mean by "compliant with WiFi standards" - clearly Roku devices are "WiFi compatible" - but Roku devices arent WiFi Certified, nor will they ever likely be (same for their competitors).

    I dont know/know of a single person/consumer (you even bought the Roku TV not knowing/caring enough beforehand) refusing to buy a wireless networking device because it "doesnt have WPA3" support.  I'm not suggesting they dont exist, just stating that they have no meaningful market impact.

    Again, Roku will likely include WPA3 (and IPv6) support (probably at the same time) at some point in the future, once the WPA3 standard has settled more and SoC support solidifies (which both their and Roku TV manufacturers' hardware products can take advantage of), but that wont happen until this fall at the earliest (with the release of OS10.1/11 and new models), and likely not until fall 2022.

StreamerUser's avatar
StreamerUser
Roku Guru
5 years ago

My guess is you'll see WPA3 support when you see IPv6 support.

Roku has never WiFi certified any of their products, and WPA3 is a WiFi certification requirement as of July 2020.

FYI, their competitors' current streamer products (GCCWGTV/FS4K/TS4K/O4KSB/Shield) dont support WPA3 and also aren't WiFi Certified (some Android TV's may offer WPA3).

Ultimately your Roku TV is the manufacturer's responsibility to get WiFi Certified (and use WPA3), so you'd need to address this to them.

busted's avatar
busted
Reel Rookie
5 years ago

Thanks for the reply!

Curiously, I landed here after being told by the manufacturer's technical support that they only built the TV. None of the "smart" features, including the wifi drivers/firmware/hardware, are their responsibility... according to them. Now that I've reached out here, the advice is to go back to the TV company. At face value I'm inclined to agree with them. A Roku software update is all that's required to enable WPA3 on 802.11ac devices. 

These devices are not compliant with current wifi standards. Why not do this update now? It's inevitable, after all, since WPA3 and Wifi6 are already rolling out on ISP provided gateways.

  • StreamerUser's avatar
    StreamerUser
    Roku Guru
    5 years ago

    Claiming the hardware or unit as a whole isnt their responsibility is a pretty brazen false claim, especially considering its their manufacturer's warranty that covers the device - not Roku's.

    What's even stranger is that you are inclined to agree with them.   Roku did not make your TV - it did not manufacture the constituent physical components nor assemble them.

    Roku's entire contribution is licensing the RokuOS software to the (unknown) manufacturer.

    WiFi Certification involves hardware products - not software (e.g. Microsoft Windows is not WiFi Certified). 

    WPA3 (a WiFi Allliance standard) is a requirement for WiFi certification as of July 2020 (and optional prior to then), but Roku doesnt WiFi certify their products (nor do their competitors), so they dont have any real impetus to include WPA3 support (nor do their competitors).

    Regardless, since Roku doesnt make Roku TVs (the manufacturers do) and since WiFi certification only certifies hardware units, the Roku TV manufacturer would have to certify their TVs (and thus have to meet WPA3 certification requirements).

    So if a product isnt WiFi certified, WPA3 support is entirely "optional" (discretion of the manufacturer), which is (one reason) why so many products are still sold without it.

    Yes, Roku would have to provide OS-level support, but since they dont WiFi certify their products, there is no rush to include the support (a Roku TV manufacturer would have to demand it, and they would only likely do so only if they wanted to WiFi certify their Roku TV).

    Finally, WPA3 isnt very secure (re: Dragonblood et al) and is still a WIP (Work-in-Progress), which is another reason there is no great rush to include support for it:

    https://www.snbforums.com/threads/are-all-the-known-wpa3-security-flaws-fixed-now.73290/

    Not sure what you mean by "compliant with WiFi standards" - clearly Roku devices are "WiFi compatible" - but Roku devices arent WiFi Certified, nor will they ever likely be (same for their competitors).

    I dont know/know of a single person/consumer (you even bought the Roku TV not knowing/caring enough beforehand) refusing to buy a wireless networking device because it "doesnt have WPA3" support.  I'm not suggesting they dont exist, just stating that they have no meaningful market impact.

    Again, Roku will likely include WPA3 (and IPv6) support (probably at the same time) at some point in the future, once the WPA3 standard has settled more and SoC support solidifies (which both their and Roku TV manufacturers' hardware products can take advantage of), but that wont happen until this fall at the earliest (with the release of OS10.1/11 and new models), and likely not until fall 2022.

    • KellicTiger's avatar
      KellicTiger
      Newbie
      3 years ago

      No one should be giving this post a kudos. Especially since even their sound bars that they create doesn't support WPA 3. And this idea that WPA3 is not an industry standard is ludicrous. This is a standard that was developed, and ratified by the Wi-Fi alliance. This is an industry standard. End of story. And just because there's a security in hole in it doesn't mean it's not more secure than WPA 2 which again is ludicrous you don't ignore a new standard simply because there might be a security hole. It's far more secure than WPA too. By that thinking we may as well go back to WEP. It's 2023. They're legitimately is no reason not to support this at this point other than being cheap.

  • DBDukes's avatar
    DBDukes
    Community Streaming Expert
    5 years ago
    busted wrote:

    ... Why not do this update now? It's inevitable.

    Money. Doing stuff that they don't have to do will cost money, which they'll simply pass along to customers. It's cheaper to build devices that will work for a good long time without going through that expense.

    The Roku devices won't suddenly stop working any time soon. The devices will indeed last a good long time, and work well too for that good long time.