CVE-2024-42398 in Aruba InstantOS
Summary
by MITRE • 08/06/2024
Multiple unauthenticated Denial-of-Service (DoS) vulnerabilities exist in the Soft AP daemon accessed via the PAPI protocol. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities results in the ability to interrupt the normal operation of the affected Access Point.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/24/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-42398 represents a critical security flaw in wireless access point infrastructure through the Soft AP daemon implementation. This daemon operates over the PAPI protocol, which serves as the communication interface for managing wireless access point functionalities. The vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms within the PAPI protocol implementation, allowing any remote attacker to establish connections and manipulate the daemon without proper authorization. This fundamental flaw creates an attack surface where malicious actors can exploit the lack of access controls to disrupt wireless network operations.
The technical nature of this vulnerability manifests through multiple pathways that can trigger denial-of-service conditions within the affected access point systems. The Soft AP daemon's failure to properly validate incoming connections and authenticate requests means that attackers can send malformed or excessive requests that cause the daemon to crash or become unresponsive. These attacks can be executed without any prior credentials or privileges, making them particularly dangerous as they can be launched from anywhere on the network. The protocol's design does not include adequate rate limiting or connection validation mechanisms, which allows for both resource exhaustion attacks and direct service interruption attempts.
The operational impact of CVE-2024-42398 extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise entire wireless network infrastructures. When the Soft AP daemon becomes unavailable, connected wireless clients lose network access, creating widespread connectivity issues for users within the affected coverage area. Organizations relying on these access points for critical operations may experience significant downtime, potentially affecting business continuity and productivity. The vulnerability also creates opportunities for attackers to conduct persistent disruption campaigns, as the lack of authentication makes it difficult to identify or block malicious traffic patterns. Network administrators may struggle to differentiate between legitimate maintenance activities and malicious DoS attempts, complicating incident response efforts.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-305 authentication weakness classifications and maps to several ATT&CK tactics including TA0040 (Resource Hijacking) and TA0005 (Defense Evasion) through the disruption of legitimate services. The attack vector primarily follows T1499.004 (Endpoint Denial of Service) and T1566.002 (Phishing via Service) when attackers leverage the vulnerability to create service disruptions. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to isolate affected access points, deployment of intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious PAPI protocol traffic, and configuration of access control lists to restrict PAPI protocol access to trusted network segments only. Additionally, regular firmware updates should be prioritized to address the underlying authentication flaws in the Soft AP daemon implementation, while network monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual connection patterns or excessive request volumes that may indicate exploitation attempts.