GLSA 200704-15: MadWifi: Multiple vulnerabilities

Severity:normal
Title:MadWifi: Multiple vulnerabilities
Date:04/17/2007
Bugs: #173434
ID:200704-15

Synopsis

Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in the MadWifi driver, possibly leading to a Denial of Service and information disclosure.

Background

The MadWifi driver provides support for Atheros based IEEE 802.11 Wireless Lan cards.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
net-wireless/madwifi-ng < 0.9.3 >= 0.9.3 All supported architectures

Description

The driver does not properly process Channel Switch Announcement Information Elements, allowing for an abnormal channel change. The ieee80211_input() function does not properly handle AUTH frames and the driver sends unencrypted packets before WPA authentication succeeds.

Impact

A remote attacker could send specially crafted AUTH frames to the vulnerable host, resulting in a Denial of Service by crashing the kernel. A remote attacker could gain access to sensitive information about network architecture by sniffing unencrypted packets. A remote attacker could also send a Channel Switch Count less than or equal to one to trigger a channel change, resulting in a communication loss and a Denial of Service.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All MadWifi users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-wireless/madwifi-ng-0.9.3"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200704-15.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.

License

Copyright 2010 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s). The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

Thank you!