Multi-Passphrase some not working..

Hi.

I just started playing with multi-passphrase on Mikrotik and had some issues with some passwords working and some not

In my lab I have an RB1100 running capsman and a hapac3 (all running ROS7.18)

heres my config

/interface wifi channel
add disabled=no frequency=2412,2437,2462 name=2.4ghz width=20mhz
add disabled=no frequency=5180,5260,5500,5580,5660,5745 name=5ghz width=20/40/80mhz
/interface wifi configuration
add channel=5ghz country="South Africa" disabled=no mode=ap name=cfg-5ghz security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk .multi-passphrase-group=test ssid=TEST
/interface wifi
# operated by CAP 08:55:31:E2:FD:1A%bridge1, traffic processing on CAP
# DFS channel availability check (1 min)
add configuration=cfg-5ghz disabled=no name=Room1-5ghz radio-mac=08:55:31:E2:FD:20
/interface wifi configuration
add channel=2.4ghz country="South Africa" datapath.bridge=bridge1 disabled=no mode=ap name=cfg-2.4ghz security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk .multi-passphrase-group=test ssid=TEST
/interface wifi
# operated by CAP 08:55:31:E2:FD:1A%bridge1, traffic processing on CAP
add configuration=cfg-2.4ghz disabled=no name=Room1-2.4ghz radio-mac=08:55:31:E2:FD:1F
/interface wifi capsman
set ca-certificate=auto certificate=auto enabled=yes interfaces=bridge1 package-path="" require-peer-certificate=no upgrade-policy=none
/interface wifi provisioning
add action=create-enabled disabled=no master-configuration=cfg-5ghz name-format=%I-5ghz supported-bands=5ghz-a
add action=create-enabled disabled=no master-configuration=cfg-2.4ghz name-format=%I-2.4ghz supported-bands=2ghz-g
/interface wifi security multi-passphrase
add disabled=no expires="2025-01-07 23:59:59" group=test passphrase=bluebird
add disabled=no expires="2025-02-07 23:59:59" group=test passphrase=browbeat
add disabled=no expires="2025-03-07 23:59:59" group=test passphrase=business
add disabled=no expires="2025-04-07 23:59:59" group=test passphrase=blinkard
...
add disabled=no expires="2042-08-07 23:59:59" group=test passphrase=unfreeze
...
add disabled=no expires="2044-12-07 23:59:59" group=test passphrase=borealis

for brevity i removed a lot of the passphrases, I have a total of 240 - which is a lot less than the 10000 limit.

After this i re-provisioned the CAP and waited like 20 minutes.

but in this example blinkard works but unfreeze did not.


I ran some more tests and it looks like its the expires parameter. Seems as though there is some sort of limit, i can set it to around “2038-02-02 02:07:59” until it stops working

set expires=“2038-02-02 02:07:59” numbers=0 #works
set expires=“2038-02-02 02:08:59” numbers=0 # doesnt work

If I wait a few minutes then set expires="2038-02-02 02:08:59" numbers=0 starts to work. So there seems to be some upper-limit thats relative the routers clock.

Obviously I wouldn’t store things like this for real, but would be great to get an error if the date is too far ahead or document the upper limit.

Good catch !
Already calculated the number of seconds between “now” and the date where it doesn’t work ?

Have you also tried leaving that parameter blank ?
I mean, what’s the practical difference between indefinitely and somewhere in 2038 ?

Is simply the time bug that from 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038 all 32 bit OS stop correctly working on dates.
The next seconds the time go back to 20:45:52 UTC on 13 December 1901

Then how does it explain this works ?

It already worked on Feb 2nd 2038 (with clock being as it is at that moment).

set expires=“2038-02-02 02:07:59” numbers=0 #works
set expires=“2038-02-02 02:08:59” numbers=0 # doesnt work

If I wait a few minutes then set expires="2038-02-02 02:08:59" numbers=0 starts to work. So there seems to be some upper-limit thats relative the routers clock.

I do not know why is 14 days later on 2 Feb and not 19 Jan, but is something involved like that… too much coincidence…

Expires ::= Year-Month-Day Hour:Min:Sec
Hour ::= 00..24
Min,Sec ::= 00..59
Month ::= 1..12
Day ::= 1..31
Year ::= 1970..**2106**2106 is the “fix” using unsigned 32 bit for gain time… (06:28:15 UTC on Sunday, 7 February 2106)


(and similar problem exist for NTP that stop working 06:28:16 UTC on 7 February 2036)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_formatting_and_storage_bugs