Zyxel security advisory for the key management vulnerabilities of WPA2 protocol

Zyxel is aware of the recently found key management vulnerabilities of the WiFi Protected Access II (WPA2) security protocol, as identified in US-CERT vulnerability  note VU#228519, with the vulnerability IDs listed in table 1.

What are the vulnerabilities?

These vulnerabilities affect wireless products that connect to WiFi networks in different ways, depending on the role of products as WiFi clients or servers, as described in table 1 below.

Table 1.

It is important to note that an attacker has to be physically nearby and is within the wireless range to exploit these weaknesses.[1]

Please see: https://www.krackattacks.com/#details for more technical information.

How are Zyxel resolving the vulnerabilities?

At Zyxel we treat security as a top priority and we have conducted a thorough investigation and identified a list of vulnerable products within their warranty and support period, as shown in table 2 below. For products not listed, they are not affected to the attacks either because they are not designed to act as WiFi clients, do not support 802.11r Fast-BSS Transition handshake, or do not support peer-key handshake by default.

We are now co-working with WiFi chipset vendors to create a solution, and the patch firmware will be available in the next few weeks or even sooner, provided WiFi chipset vendors will release their patches much earlier. 

Please refer to table 2 for the detailed release schedule.

Table 2

* The above Access Points (NWA5301-NJ, NWA5123-AC, WAC6103D-I, WAC6500 series) are only affected when managed by NXC2500/5500 with 802.11r enabled. Note that when the mentioned Access Points in standalone mode are not affected because 802.11r is not supported in this mode and therefore, there is no hotfix/solution required. So the available hotfix we release is for NXC2500/NXC5500.

Please click on the link below to download the hotfix for NXC2500/NXC5500. 

Download hotfix for NXC2500

Download hotfix for NXC5500

As mentioned previously - It is important to note that an attacker has to be physically nearby and is within the wireless range to exploit these weaknesses. As our Business class Access Points support the 802.11r Fast-BSS Transition (FT) handshake, devices supporting this feature are listed in the vulnerability list (table 2). By default, the 802.11r is not enabled in Zyxel Products or Controllers; and the majority of Zyxel customers will not be affected.

For customers who have enabled 802.11r, who are concerned about the security risks, they should disable the 802.11r feature to prevent an attack from taking place. Once the Hotfix has been released, clients wishing to use the 802.11r feature are advised to update as soon as possible to ensure the vulnerability does not affect the security of their network.

For more information and technical details regarding the vulnerabilities please see below references:

1.      US-CERT VU note: https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/228519/

2.      Disclosure by by Mathy Vanhoef of imec-DistriNet of KU Leuven: https://www.krackattacks.com/