int ch;
        int rc = 0;
 
+       wil_print_connect_params(wil, sme);
+
        if (test_bit(wil_status_fwconnecting, wil->status) ||
            test_bit(wil_status_fwconnected, wil->status))
                return -EALREADY;
 
-       wil_print_connect_params(wil, sme);
+       if (sme->ie_len > WMI_MAX_IE_LEN) {
+               wil_err(wil, "IE too large (%td bytes)\n", sme->ie_len);
+               return -ERANGE;
+       }
+
+       rsn_eid = sme->ie ?
+                       cfg80211_find_ie(WLAN_EID_RSN, sme->ie, sme->ie_len) :
+                       NULL;
+
+       if (sme->privacy && !rsn_eid) {
+               wil_err(wil, "Missing RSN IE for secure connection\n");
+               return -EINVAL;
+       }
 
        bss = cfg80211_get_bss(wiphy, sme->channel, sme->bssid,
                               sme->ssid, sme->ssid_len,
                rc = -ENOENT;
                goto out;
        }
+       wil->privacy = sme->privacy;
 
-       rsn_eid = sme->ie ?
-                       cfg80211_find_ie(WLAN_EID_RSN, sme->ie, sme->ie_len) :
-                       NULL;
-       if (rsn_eid) {
-               if (sme->ie_len > WMI_MAX_IE_LEN) {
-                       rc = -ERANGE;
-                       wil_err(wil, "IE too large (%td bytes)\n",
-                               sme->ie_len);
-                       goto out;
-               }
+       if (wil->privacy) {
                /* For secure assoc, send WMI_DELETE_CIPHER_KEY_CMD */
                rc = wmi_del_cipher_key(wil, 0, bss->bssid);
                if (rc) {
                        bss->capability);
                goto out;
        }
-       if (rsn_eid) {
+       if (wil->privacy) {
                conn.dot11_auth_mode = WMI_AUTH11_SHARED;
                conn.auth_mode = WMI_AUTH_WPA2_PSK;
                conn.pairwise_crypto_type = WMI_CRYPT_AES_GCMP;