CVE-2018-14526 in wpa_supplicant
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in rsn_supp/wpa.c in wpa_supplicant 2.0 through 2.6. Under certain conditions, the integrity of EAPOL-Key messages is not checked, leading to a decryption oracle. An attacker within range of the Access Point and client can abuse the vulnerability to recover sensitive information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/01/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-14526 represents a critical flaw in the wpa_supplicant implementation that affects versions 2.0 through 2.6. This issue resides within the rsn_supp/wpa.c component and fundamentally compromises the security of wireless network authentication mechanisms. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of EAPOL-Key message integrity, creating a decryption oracle that exposes sensitive network information to malicious actors within physical proximity of both the access point and client devices. This flaw directly impacts the security assurances provided by WPA2 wireless authentication protocols, undermining the cryptographic protections that users expect when connecting to secured wireless networks.
The technical nature of this vulnerability involves a failure in the cryptographic validation process during EAPOL-Key message handling within the wireless authentication framework. When EAPOL-Key messages are transmitted between wireless clients and access points, they contain critical cryptographic material including the Pairwise Transient Key that encrypts data traffic. The flaw allows an attacker to manipulate these messages without detection, effectively creating a decryption oracle where the victim's device inadvertently reveals information about the encryption keys through its response behavior. This type of vulnerability falls under the CWE-310 category of Cryptographic Issues, specifically addressing weaknesses in cryptographic implementations that can lead to key exposure or decryption capabilities.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant threat vector for wireless network security as it requires minimal physical proximity to exploit effectively. An attacker positioned within the radio range of both the access point and client device can leverage this weakness to perform cryptographic attacks that ultimately lead to the recovery of sensitive information including session keys and potentially plaintext data. The attack scenario typically involves the malicious actor intercepting and modifying EAPOL-Key frames, then observing how the legitimate client responds to these modified frames. This behavior allows the attacker to infer information about the cryptographic keys through statistical analysis or pattern recognition techniques. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1486, which involves data manipulation through cryptographic attacks and key recovery processes.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure to potentially enable full network compromise. When an attacker successfully exploits this decryption oracle, they can reconstruct the encryption keys used for wireless communication, effectively allowing them to decrypt all subsequent traffic between the client and access point. This capability provides unauthorized access to sensitive data transmitted over the wireless network, potentially including personal information, corporate data, and other confidential communications. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it affects the fundamental security assurances of WPA2 wireless networks, which are widely deployed in enterprise and consumer environments. Organizations relying on these wireless security protocols for network protection face significant risk when exposed to this vulnerability, as it essentially invalidates the cryptographic protections designed to secure wireless communications.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-14526 require immediate patching of affected wpa_supplicant implementations to versions that properly validate EAPOL-Key message integrity. System administrators should prioritize updating all wireless clients and access point firmware to ensure compliance with current security standards. Additionally, network administrators should implement monitoring solutions that can detect anomalous EAPOL-Key message patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper cryptographic implementation and validation, emphasizing the need for robust integrity checking mechanisms in security-critical protocols. Organizations should also consider implementing additional network segmentation and monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts, as the vulnerability's impact can be mitigated through network-level detection and response measures that complement the core protocol fixes.