Debian DLA-473-1 : wpa security update

high Nessus Plugin ID 91135

Synopsis

The remote Debian host is missing a security update.

Description

A vulnerability was found in how hostapd and wpa_supplicant writes the configuration file update for the WPA/WPA2 passphrase parameter. If this parameter has been updated to include control characters either through a WPS operation (CVE-2016-4476) or through local configuration change over the wpa_supplicant control interface (CVE-2016-4477), the resulting configuration file may prevent the hostapd and wpa_supplicant from starting when the updated file is used. In addition for wpa_supplicant, it may be possible to load a local library file and execute code from there with the same privileges under which the wpa_supplicant process runs.

CVE-2016-4476 hostapd 0.6.7 through 2.5 and wpa_supplicant 0.6.7 through 2.5 do not reject \n and \r characters in passphrase parameters, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon outage) via a crafted WPS operation.

CVE-2016-4477 wpa_supplicant 0.4.0 through 2.5 does not reject \n and \r characters in passphrase parameters, which allows local users to trigger arbitrary library loading and consequently gain privileges, or cause a denial of service (daemon outage), via a crafted (1) SET, (2) SET_CRED, or (3) SET_NETWORK command.

For Debian 7 'Wheezy', these problems have been fixed in version 1.0-3+deb7u4.

We recommend that you upgrade your wpa packages.

NOTE: Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the DLA security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Solution

Upgrade the affected packages.

See Also

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2016/05/msg00025.html

https://packages.debian.org/source/wheezy/wpa

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 91135

File Name: debian_DLA-473.nasl

Version: 2.9

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 5/16/2016

Updated: 1/11/2021

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wpagui, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:7.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:hostapd, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wpasupplicant, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wpasupplicant-udeb

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 5/14/2016

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2016-4476, CVE-2016-4477