medium
6.5
CWE
287
Advisory Published
CVE Published
Updated

CVE-2023-52160

First published: Fri Feb 16 2024(Updated: )

In wpa_supplicant, a flaw was discovered in the implementation of PEAP, which allows an attacker to skip the second phase of authentication when the target device has not been properly configured to verify the authentication server. Note that PEAP is the most common authentication method for Enterprise networks. By skipping Phase-2 authentication, it’s much easier for an attacker to create a rogue clone of a trusted WiFi network and trick the victim into connecting, all without knowing their password. Typical Attack Prerequisites: - The attacker needs to know the SSID of the target Enterprise WPA2/3 network - The attacker must be within range of their victim, who can be located anywhere, i.e. they don’t need to be in range of the network being impersonated during the attack - wpa_supplicant must be configured to not verify the authentication server’s TLS certificate It is trivial to harvest SSIDs from around office buildings or to advertise popular Enterprise network names such as eduroam, Vodafone Homespot, TelenetWiFree or Unitymedia WifiSpot for example, and simply wait for an unsuspecting victim to connect. The misconfiguration of wpa_supplicant is unfortunately a known issue on many systems. Proper configuration is a manual process, whose confusing and tedious nature prompts many users to skip it. References: <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/research/wifi-vulnerabilities/">https://www.top10vpn.com/research/wifi-vulnerabilities/</a> <a href="https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/commit/?id=8e6485a1bcb0baff">https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/commit/?id=8e6485a1bcb0baff</a>

Credit: cve@mitre.org

Affected SoftwareAffected VersionHow to fix
Debian=10.0
Fedora=38
Fedora=39
Red Hat Enterprise Linux=8.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux=9.0
All of
wpa_supplicant<=2.10
Any of
Android
Chrome OS
Linux Kernel

Remedy

https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/commit/?id=8e6485a1bcb0baffdea9e55255a81270b768439c

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Reference Links

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is the severity of CVE-2023-52160?

    The severity of CVE-2023-52160 is considered high due to the potential for attackers to bypass PEAP authentication when misconfigurations are present.

  • How do I fix CVE-2023-52160?

    To fix CVE-2023-52160, ensure that all devices are properly configured to verify the authentication server when using PEAP.

  • Which software is affected by CVE-2023-52160?

    CVE-2023-52160 affects wpa_supplicant versions up to and including 2.10 on specific distributions like Debian 10.0, Fedora 38 and 39, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 and 9.0.

  • Can CVE-2023-52160 be exploited remotely?

    Yes, CVE-2023-52160 can potentially be exploited remotely by attackers targeting non-verified PEAP authentication configurations.

  • What authentication method does CVE-2023-52160 affect?

    CVE-2023-52160 affects the Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP), which is widely used for enterprise wireless network authentication.

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