Cisco IOS XE Wireless Controller Software for the Catalyst 9000 Family WPA Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the WPA2 and WPA3 security implementation of Cisco IOS XE Wireless Controller Software for the Cisco Catalyst 9000 Family could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device.

The vulnerability is due to incorrect packet processing during the WPA2 and WPA3 authentication handshake when configured for dot1x or pre-shared key (PSK) authentication key management (AKM) with 802.11r BSS Fast Transition (FT) enabled. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted authentication packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a DoS condition.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

Note: Valid credentials for dot1x or PSK AKM to access the WLAN are required to exploit this vulnerability

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-wpa-dos-cXshjerc [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-wpa-dos-cXshjerc”]

This advisory is part of the September 24, 2020, release of the Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication, which includes 25 Cisco Security Advisories that describe 34 vulnerabilities. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: September 2020 Semiannual Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-74268”].