CVE-2019-9498

Description

A flaw was found in wpa_supplicant. An attack using invalid scalar/element values is possible against the EAP-pwd server since hostapd and wpa_supplicant did not validate these values in the received EAP-pwd-Commit messages. When processing an EAP-pwd Commit frame, the peer's scalar and element (elliptic curve point) were not validated. This allowed an adversary to bypass authentication, and impersonate any user if the crypto implementation did not verify the validity of the EC point. The vulnerability is only exploitable if OpenSSL version 1.0.2 or lower is used, or if LibreSSL or wolfssl is used. Newer versions of OpenSSL (and also BoringSSL) implicitly validate the elliptic curve point in EC_POINT_set_affine_coordinates_GFp(), preventing the attack. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity.

Statement

This issue did not affect the versions of wpa_supplicant as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6 as they did not include support for EAP-pwd.

This issue did not affect the versions of wpa_supplicant as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as they are not compiled with EAP-pwd enabled. In particular, the CONFIG_EAP_PWD=y option is not set at compile time.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score6.88.1N/A
Attack VectorAdjacent NetworkNetworkN/A
Attack ComplexityHighHighN/A
Privileges RequiredNoneNoneN/A
User InteractionNoneNoneN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityHighHighN/A
Integrity ImpactHighHighN/A
Availability ImpactNoneHighN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Integrity,Other

Technical Impact: Varies by Context; Unexpected State

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank Eyal Ronen (Tel Aviv University & KU Leuven) and Mathy Vanhoef (NYUAD) for reporting this issue.

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