Vulnerability Note VU#763355

802.1X password exploit on many HTC Android devices

Original Release date: 01 Feb 2012 | Last revised: 01 Feb 2012

Overview

A user's 802.1X WiFi credentials and SSID information may be exposed to any application with basic WiFi permissions on certain HTC builds of Android.

Description

Any Android application on an affected HTC build with the android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE permission can use the .toString() member of the WifiConfiguration class to view all 802.1X credentials and SSID information. If the same application also has the android.permission.INTERNET permission then that application can harvest the credentials and exfiltrate them to a server on the Internet.

The following devices have been reported as affected:

  • Desire HD (both "ace" and "spade" board revisions) - Versions FRG83D, GRI40
  • Glacier - Version FRG83
  • Droid Incredible - Version FRF91
  • Thunderbolt 4G - Version FRG83D
  • Sensation Z710e - Version GRI40
  • Sensation 4G - Version GRI40
  • Desire S - Version GRI40
  • EVO 3D - Version GRI40
  • EVO 4G - Version GRI40
    The following devices have been reported as not affected:
    • myTouch3g
    • Nexus One
    Additional details can be found in Bret Jordan's blog post.

    Impact

    An attacker may be able to view and exfiltrate WiFi SSID information and credentials.

    Solution

    Apply an Update
    Users with an affected HTC phone should visit the HTC support site for instructions on how to update their phone. In some cases, the update will be automatically delivered to the phone.

    Vendor Information (Learn More)

    VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
    HTCAffected-01 Feb 2012
    If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

    CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

    Group Score Vector
    Base N/A N/A
    Temporal N/A N/A
    Environmental N/A N/A

    References

    Credit

    Thanks to Chris Hessing and Bret Jordan for reporting this vulnerability.

    This document was written by Jared Allar.

    Other Information

    • CVE IDs: CVE-2011-4872
    • Date Public: 01 Feb 2012
    • Date First Published: 01 Feb 2012
    • Date Last Updated: 01 Feb 2012
    • Severity Metric: 1.23
    • Document Revision: 18

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