GLSA 200612-09: MadWifi: Kernel driver buffer overflow

Severity:high
Title:MadWifi: Kernel driver buffer overflow
Date:12/10/2006
Bugs: #157449
ID:200612-09

Synopsis

MadWifi is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that could potentially lead to the remote execution of arbitrary code with root privileges.

Background

MadWifi (Multiband Atheros Driver for Wireless Fidelity) provides a Linux kernel device driver for Atheros-based Wireless LAN devices.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
net-wireless/madwifi-ng < 0.9.2.1 >= 0.9.2.1 All supported architectures

Description

Laurent Butti, Jerome Raznieski and Julien Tinnes reported a buffer overflow in the encode_ie() and the giwscan_cb() functions from ieee80211_wireless.c.

Impact

A remote attacker could send specially crafted wireless WPA packets containing malicious RSN Information Headers (IE) that could potentially lead to the remote execution of arbitrary code as the root user.

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-0.9.2.1"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200612-09.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!