Describe the five steps in the process of WEP encryption.

What will be an ideal response?

1. The information to be encrypted has a cyclic redundancy check value calculated. This CRC generates a checksum based on the contents of the text. WEP (wired equivalent privacy) calls this the integrity check value (ICV) and appends it to of the text.
2. The WEP shared secret key used for encryption is combined initialization vector (IV).The IV is a 24-bit value that changes each time a packet is encrypted. This random IV value helps ensure that another number (created in the next step) can be created. If only the default key was used to create a random number then the number generated could be the same each time. Varying the IV each time ensures that the random number is indeed random. In this sense the IV (along with the default key) is used as a "seed" for generating a random number.
3. The shared secret key and IV are then entered into a pseudo-random generator (PRNG) that creates a random number. This output is known keystream. The keystream is essentially a series of 1's and 0's equal in the text plus the ICV.
4. The two values (text plus ICV and the keystream) are then combined the exclusive OR (XOR) operation to create the ciphertext.
5. The IV is added to the front ("pre-pended") of the ciphertext and the ready for transmission. The IV is in plaintext and is not encrypted.