CompTIA Security+ Exam Prep

Answer: A - Shared Key authentication is considered a security risk because an access point transmits unencrypted challenge text and receives the same challenge text encrypted with the WEP key.

Because the plaintext challenge and the encrypted plaintext challenge are transmitted in the clear in sequence, a hacker could easily obtain both with a protocol analyzer. These challenges can be used to yield the WEP key, which could then be used for real-time decryption of data packets on the network.