Wi-Fi 7 mandates WPA3, legacy clients misread it, and RSNO becomes the tiebreaker

CableLabs warned on August 18, 2026 that legacy Wi-Fi clients do not reliably ignore security options they fail to recognize, and some can no longer join a Wi-Fi 7 access point. The fix exists — WPA3-Personal Compatibility Mode and RSNO elements — but it downgrades clients that do not implement it to Wi-Fi 6.