October 2017 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Chuck Anderson

On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 02:29:56PM -0400, Keith Wright wrote: > This is very embarrassing for the authors of the > standard, but is it really a big problem? Several > meetings ago, somebody brought a device to the > WLUG meeting that, as I understood it, pretends > to be a wireless router and interposes itself > into any nearby connection. If things like that > exist, why care about encryption vulnerability? Because with properly configured wireless and patched clients, you can be sure you are connecting to the trusted network, not a Man-in-the-Middle. It requires mutual authentication, which happens for example on the WPI wireless network by using EAP-TLS certificates. The client is supposed to verify the server's certificate and the server of course verifies the client's certificate. Unfortunately, most networks don't use EAP but rather use Pre-Shared Keys (WPA2-PSK). > If you need to patch both sides to be secure, > then you are not secure in the coffee shop no > matter what you do. In any case, if you are > using the wireless to connect to a web site > or "cloud" server, then the wireless connection > is the least of your insecurities. In the strictest sense this is true, but as far as the KRACK attack goes, the wireless AP side is much less likely to be a problem, because the vulnerabilities are in parts of the standards that are not often used (802.11r "Fast Roaming" for example). The client-side vulnerabilities, especially in Linux/Android, are much more serious. On Linux, the client can be tricked into using a null session key. However, in a coffee shop KRACK is moot because most coffee shops don't use encryption at all to begin with. In any case, WPI's recommendation to use the VPN if you are not sure of your device's or the network's immunity to KRACK is sound, because even if there was a M-i-t-M, they still would not be able to decrypt the VPN traffic. Security is helpful in layers. Belt-and-suspenders.

Oct. 18, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Keith Wright

"Sweetser, Frank E" <fs(a)WPI.EDU> writes: > Nothing so simple, unfortunately. This class of vulnerability is > actually a collection of 10 CVEs, which encompass both the AP side and > client side. If you've patched the AP side, for example, the attacker > may still be able to compromise the set of session keys on the client > side, and decrypt all of the client sent traffic. > You've got to patch both sides to be fully secure. You've got to avoid computers to be fully secure. But let's not get that paranoid. I pulled Cat 5 cable through the house years ago and never use wireless, but WPI has its hair on fire, and sent Professor Diane email (through Microsoft cloud service) to install "upgrades" immediately. I told her to at least wait until she has her computer back in the office and plugged into WPI cable. I have a friend who has been without a computer for a month or two because he tried to upgrade firmware and could not re-boot. This is very embarrassing for the authors of the standard, but is it really a big problem? Several meetings ago, somebody brought a device to the WLUG meeting that, as I understood it, pretends to be a wireless router and interposes itself into any nearby connection. If things like that exist, why care about encryption vulnerability? If you need to patch both sides to be secure, then you are not secure in the coffee shop no matter what you do. In any case, if you are using the wireless to connect to a web site or "cloud" server, then the wireless connection is the least of your insecurities. -- Keith

Oct. 18, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Sweetser, Frank E

Nothing so simple, unfortunately. This class of vulnerability is actually a collection of 10 CVEs, which encompass both the AP side and client side. If you've patched the AP side, for example, the attacker may still be able to compromise the set of session keys on the client side, and decrypt all of the client sent traffic. You've got to patch both sides to be fully secure. """ The direction in which packets can be decrypted (and possibly forged) depends on the handshake being attacked. Simplified, when attacking the 4-way handshake, we can decrypt (and forge) packets sent by the client. When attacking the Fast BSS Transition (FT) handshake, we can decrypt (and forge) packets sent towards the client. Finally, most of our attacks also allow the replay of unicast, broadcast, and multicast frames. For further details, see Section 6 of our research paper<https://www.krackattacks.com/#paper>. """ Frank Sweetser Director of Network Operations Worcester Polytechnic Institute "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." - HL Mencken ________________________________ From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org <wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org> on behalf of Theo Van Dinter <felicity(a)kluge.net> Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 3:30 PM To: Worcester Linux Users Group Subject: Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability fwiw, my understanding is that the vulnerability is on the client side. therefore, I'm not sure what patches would get applied to an access point, though presumably if you use bridging (and maybe extension?) functionality then maybe there's an issue there. iow, I think patching access points isn't necessary or at least is a low priority if you're not using a feature that turns the device into a client. """ What if there are no security updates for my router? Our main attack is against the 4-way handshake, and does not exploit access points, but instead targets clients. So it might be that your router does not require security updates. We strongly advise you to contact your vendor for more details. In general though, you can try to mitigate attacks against routers and access points by disabling client functionality (which is for example used in repeater modes) and disabling 802.11r (fast roaming). For ordinary home users, your priority should be updating clients such as laptops and smartphones. """ On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 3:21 PM, Michael C Voorhis <mvoorhis(a)cs.wpi.edu<mailto:mvoorhis@cs.wpi.edu>> wrote: Chuck Anderson writes: > Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They > are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public > distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: Ubuntu released a bunch of WPA-related patches a little after noontime today, it appears. John Stoffel: > I'm using DD-WRT on my APs at home, but god do the web pages and > forums suck for actually figuring out what version to run and > whether it's patched or not. Sigh... Ditto for OpenWRT, it appears the project is still alive, but you'd never know, looking at their website. I may switch to LEDE, which confusingly appears to be a fork of OpenWRT which is trying to merge back with OpenWRT....? --MCV. _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org<mailto:Wlug@mail.wlug.org> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Theo Van Dinter

fwiw, my understanding is that the vulnerability is on the client side. therefore, I'm not sure what patches would get applied to an access point, though presumably if you use bridging (and maybe extension?) functionality then maybe there's an issue there. iow, I think patching access points isn't necessary or at least is a low priority if you're not using a feature that turns the device into a client. """ What if there are no security updates for my router? Our main attack is against the 4-way handshake, and does not exploit access points, but instead targets clients. So it might be that your router does not require security updates. We strongly advise you to contact your vendor for more details. In general though, you can try to mitigate attacks against routers and access points by disabling client functionality (which is for example used in repeater modes) and disabling 802.11r (fast roaming). For ordinary home users, your priority should be updating clients such as laptops and smartphones. """ On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 3:21 PM, Michael C Voorhis <mvoorhis(a)cs.wpi.edu> wrote: > Chuck Anderson writes: > > Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They > > are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public > > distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: > > Ubuntu released a bunch of WPA-related patches a little after noontime > today, it appears. > > John Stoffel: > > I'm using DD-WRT on my APs at home, but god do the web pages and > > forums suck for actually figuring out what version to run and > > whether it's patched or not. Sigh... > > Ditto for OpenWRT, it appears the project is still alive, but you'd > never know, looking at their website. I may switch to LEDE, which > confusingly appears to be a fork of OpenWRT which is trying to merge > back with OpenWRT....? > > --MCV. > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by thinkbrown＠gmail.com

wpa_supplicant got an update pushed to the Arch repos at around 11AM too (if anybody else here uses Arch) On Oct 16, 2017 15:23, "Michael C Voorhis" <mvoorhis(a)cs.wpi.edu> wrote: Chuck Anderson writes: > Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They > are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public > distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: Ubuntu released a bunch of WPA-related patches a little after noontime today, it appears. John Stoffel: > I'm using DD-WRT on my APs at home, but god do the web pages and > forums suck for actually figuring out what version to run and > whether it's patched or not. Sigh... Ditto for OpenWRT, it appears the project is still alive, but you'd never know, looking at their website. I may switch to LEDE, which confusingly appears to be a fork of OpenWRT which is trying to merge back with OpenWRT....? --MCV. _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Chuck Anderson

On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 03:21:29PM -0400, Michael C Voorhis wrote: > Chuck Anderson writes: > > Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They > > are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public > > distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: > > Ubuntu released a bunch of WPA-related patches a little after noontime > today, it appears. > > John Stoffel: > > I'm using DD-WRT on my APs at home, but god do the web pages and > > forums suck for actually figuring out what version to run and > > whether it's patched or not. Sigh... > > Ditto for OpenWRT, it appears the project is still alive, but you'd > never know, looking at their website. I may switch to LEDE, which > confusingly appears to be a fork of OpenWRT which is trying to merge > back with OpenWRT....? LEDE does a bunch of faster-paced development with the goal of having their work eventually merged back into OpenWRT. They often experiment with different ideas/features.

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Michael C Voorhis

Chuck Anderson writes: > Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They > are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public > distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: Ubuntu released a bunch of WPA-related patches a little after noontime today, it appears. John Stoffel: > I'm using DD-WRT on my APs at home, but god do the web pages and > forums suck for actually figuring out what version to run and > whether it's patched or not. Sigh... Ditto for OpenWRT, it appears the project is still alive, but you'd never know, looking at their website. I may switch to LEDE, which confusingly appears to be a fork of OpenWRT which is trying to merge back with OpenWRT....? --MCV.

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Krichevsky, Nicholas Jacob

Looks like they were just pushed to stable about 30 minutes ago. I don't have the update yet but I'm sure it's a matter of time. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2017-60bfb576b7 Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36> ________________________________ From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org <wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org> on behalf of Chuck Anderson <cra(a)WPI.EDU> Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 2:11:05 PM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=krack&list_id=7995606 https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/?packages=wpa_supplicant https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2017-60bfb576b7 https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2017-12e76e8364 https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=717 On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 12:06:34PM -0400, Eric Martin wrote: > Here's a comprehensive write up with the latest fixes, and it's getting > updated regularly: > > https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/list-of-firmware-and-driver-… > > I'm not sure how Fedora can have an update and also not have released any > info... > > On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 9:42 AM, Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hey Gang, > > > > If you haven't heard already, it appears someone has found a major flaw in > > WPA2! > > > > https://www.krackattacks.com/ > > > > Hopefully patches should be forth coming! > > > > Later, > > Tim. _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by Chuck Anderson

Because none of Fedora's updates aren't actually released yet. They are built and undergoing pushing/testing now, but being a public distro, anyone can get them if they know where to look: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=krack&list_id=7995606 https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/?packages=wpa_supplicant https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2017-60bfb576b7 https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2017-12e76e8364 https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=717 On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 12:06:34PM -0400, Eric Martin wrote: > Here's a comprehensive write up with the latest fixes, and it's getting > updated regularly: > > https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/list-of-firmware-and-driver-… > > I'm not sure how Fedora can have an update and also not have released any > info... > > On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 9:42 AM, Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hey Gang, > > > > If you haven't heard already, it appears someone has found a major flaw in > > WPA2! > > > > https://www.krackattacks.com/ > > > > Hopefully patches should be forth coming! > > > > Later, > > Tim.

Oct. 16, 2017

Re: [Wlug] Major WPA2 Vulnerability

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Eric" == Eric Martin <eric.joshua.martin(a)gmail.com> writes: Eric> Aruba posted a really good write up as well as patches, and I just updated iOS Eric> on my phone though I haven’t seen the typical security email from Apple. Don’t Eric> forget, upgrade the client side as well! I'm using DD-WRT on my APs at home, but god do the web pages and forums suck for actually figuring out what version to run and whether it's patched or not. Sigh...

Oct. 16, 2017