Wi-Fi 7 introduces Beacon Protection as a mandatory requirement for both APs and devices. When this feature is enabled, an AP provisions its devices with the AP’s Beacon Integrity Key during initial authentication setup and adds a Message Integrity Check (MIC) element to its beacon frames. This allows devices associated with the AP to verify the integrity of beacon frames and detect active attacks that forge or modify them. Both the AP and the device announce their capability to support Beacon Protection in their Extended Capabilities field. Beacon Protection can be enabled for any of the WPA3 Authentication Key Management (AKM) modes such as OWE, SAE, SAE-FT, SAE-EXT, SAE-EXT-FT, SUITEB192-1x, 802.1x-SHA256, and FT-802.1x.
