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Wi-Fi WPA2 Vulnerability Found

Posted by kdawson on from the keep-your-enemies-closer dept.

BobB-nw sends along news based on yet another press release in advance of the Black Hat conference: a claimed vulnerability in WPA2 Enterprise that leaves traffic open to a malicious insider. "...wireless security researchers say they have uncovered a vulnerability in the WPA2 security protocol, which is the strongest form of Wi-Fi encryption and authentication currently standardized and available. Malicious insiders can exploit the vulnerability, named 'Hole 196' by the researcher who discovered it at wireless security company AirTight Networks. The moniker refers to the page of the IEEE 802.11 Standard (Revision, 2007) on which the vulnerability is buried. Hole 196 lends itself to man-in-the-middle-style exploits, whereby an internal, authorized Wi-Fi user can decrypt, over the air, the private data of others, inject malicious traffic into the network, and compromise other authorized devices using open source software, according to AirTight. 'There's nothing in the standard to upgrade to in order to patch or fix the hole,' says Kaustubh Phanse, AirTight's wireless architect who describes Hole 196 as a 'zero-day vulnerability that creates a window of opportunity' for exploitation." Wi-Fi Net News has some more detail and speculation.

8 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Not that big a deal... by Denis+Lemire · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This vulnerability is only useful if the attacker knows your WPA key. In other related news, it has been discovered that those who know your root password can delete all your files.

    1. Re:Not that big a deal... by Denis+Lemire · · Score: 5, Insightful

      M'eh, if you have anything sensitive that you're sending over the network it should be sent securely, period. ie) via SSH, HTTPS, etc... Otherwise, you're just doing it wrong.

      Having an additional layer like WPA provided is indeed a nice thing, but this being compromised isn't the end of the world. I'd be far more concerned if there was a vulnerability that allowed someone to bypass WPA all together and connect to a network in which he or she isn't authorized.

      The encryption of the traffic itself really isn't that much of a selling point when it'll continue across the wired network in the clear once it hits the router or switch upstream. Encryption that isn't end-to-end really isn't worth the time spent talking about it.

    2. Re:Not that big a deal... by yuhong · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep, WEP stood for Wired Equivalent Privacy, which was all it and WPA(2) was intended to provide, nothing more.

  2. Re:so, not a hole by Iwanowitch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unless the wifi network is at a Starbucks, a university or a corporation.

    That creepy guy sitting two tables from you at the coffee shop? He can now read your e-mail.

    --
    One CS student VS 893 DOS games: Let's play oldies
  3. Re:so, not a hole by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That creepy guy sitting two tables from you at the coffee shop? He can now read your e-mail.

    How's he do that? Am I relying on WPA2 as my only encryption across the 'net?

  4. Re:so, not a hole by jijacob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ssh -D is just a terminal away.

  5. VPN by Jaime2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've been telling people to use VPN over WiFi connections forever. Even better, put your wireless devices on the outside of the firewall, so they have no choice but to VPN in. This also makes giving a random guest access to your wireless no big deal. Any one who thinks wireless networking will ever be safer than an old-fashioned hub is deluding themselves.

  6. Re:so, not a hole by Nyder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unless the wifi network is at a Starbucks, a university or a corporation.

    That creepy guy sitting two tables from you at the coffee shop? He can now read your e-mail.

    No, the creepy guy sitting 2 tables from you? he's just viewing porn.

    See that nice dressed business woman? She's stealing your data.

    --
    Be seeing you...