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> This set of vulnerabilities requires a potential attacker to be physically within range of the Wi-Fi network

I have troubles imagining an attack on wifi protocol where this doesn't apply :).



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> Impact: An attacker within range may be able to execute arbitrary code on the Wi-Fi chip"

That's a major problem!


> requires a potential attacker to be physically within range of the Wi-Fi network (or user device) in order to exploit it.

So everyone that lives or works in a city? That can't be many people can it?


> The adversary has a limited ability to monitor short-range communication channels (Bluetooth, WiFi, etc).

That seems like a pretty big assumption. From what i understand there already exists deployment of wifi hot spots to track people (both for advertising purposes and for spying purposes) to the extent that phone providers started radomizing MAC addresses.


> The discovered vulnerabilities affect all modern security protocols of Wi-Fi, including the latest WPA3 specification. Even the original security protocol of Wi-Fi, called WEP, is affected.

Saved you a click.


> for example, an attacker within range of an Wi-Fi access point hosting a network without encryption

The monkey in the middle doesn't get to "relay" anything either, but he can sure see it going over his head.


> Your data can be eavesdropped or modified by someone in the middle. This would be quite rare within a LAN

Literally every single public wifi network, which is a significant percentage of all internet traffic (including basically everyone working from a wework for example), is vulnerable to eavesdropping/mitm


> This exploits a design flaw in hotspot-like networks and allows the attacker to force an access points to encrypt yet to be queued frames using an adversary-chosen key, thereby bypassing Wi-Fi encryption entirely. Our attacks have a widespread impact as they affect various devices and operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD, iOS, and Android) and because they can be used to hijack TCP connections or intercept client and web traffic

Interesting approach, that seems to be limited to Hotspots or am I getting this wrong?


Various vulnerabilities in your wifi driver. Some of these may require you only be in range; others may be exploitable only if associated with the network.

>where the attacker has physical proximity to the machine.

There may also be an option to use a directional antenna to pick it up from a great distance away.

Physical infiltration of networks isn't a fictional concept. It does happen all the time.


> You have it connect only to your trusted IPs.

Wi-Fi makes that pretty damn hard to verify. In theory, malicious firmware could even opportunistically link up with other malicious firmware acting as a bridge via some undocumented protocol that would only be detectable by looking at the raw spectrum.


> Also doesn't it require the attacker to have access to your wifi already?

No it doesn't. Watch the video. It creates a clone of your network and tricks the victim's software stack to connect into it.


> This has to work even if network reception is weak or absent.

Or hacked maliciously.


> unless of course there is leakage of that radiation affecting someone else outside of your private property.

There always is. Radio waves don't respect walls (unless they're made of metal). If you look at the linked document, it shows strong indications that the attacks did affect wifi networks from vehicles passing by, that is, fully outside of the property.


>[KRACK] easy to exploit in a lab but very hard to exploit in practice

How so? Even I have done it (on my own AP). Unless you own a big property that the WiFi signal cannot reach outside it's as easy as pressing GO in one of the hundreds of script kiddie tools.


> the design flaws are hard to abuse because…

This is good.

> in practice the biggest concern are the programming mistakes in Wi-Fi products since several of them are trivial to exploit.

Any indication which devices are known to be affected? None of the pages I've read so far give that information. Though it could be that this information is subject to "responsible disclosure" and won't be released until manufacturers have had a reasonable amount of time to release patches.


>It's absolutely ridiculous how insecure home network equipment is.

But remember not to leave your wireless access open to passers-by. That helps hackers, and Al-Qaeda, and pedophiles, and drug dealers! /sarcasm


Well I did mention it's "an end-of-the-world type vulnerability, at least as far as Wi-Fi goes".

I don't think it's a lot of consolation saying something along the lines of "Wi-Fi security is broken, but it's not so bad because it's Wi-Fi"


> By remote is meant only a few feet.

How does it enforce that? Is it just based on signal strength?

> The intended user can switch off or unplug the load in person then operate the meter.

This is just the wrong way to think about it. The "intended user" is all nice, but what can an attacker do? That is how these problems need to be analysed.


>What if they could determine the endpoint of the data and see that there was nothing connected to that endpoint at the same time, sending the same amount of traffic (using it as a proxy).

You say that as if breaking into someone's PC and using their wireless NIC to break into neighboring networks is totally implausible. Commonly known as pivoting.

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