A method, an apparatus, and a device for managing authentication data of a station (STA), where the method includes determining, by a first wireless local area network (WLAN) controller, that a first access point (AP) is an edge AP when a first STA associates with the first AP, where the edge AP is an AP neighboring to another AP, and the other AP and the edge AP are respectively managed by different WLAN controllers, and sending, by the first WLAN controller, authentication data of the first STA to at least one WLAN controller in order to resolve a problem that system performance is affected because relatively much signaling is required by processing when a WLAN controller synchronizes authentication data of a STA when the STA associates with an AP.