• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 

U.S. CISA urges to immediately patch Microsoft SharePoint flaw adding it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Microsoft issues emergency patches for SharePoint zero-days exploited in "ToolShell" attacks

 | 

SharePoint zero-day CVE-2025-53770 actively exploited in the wild

 | 

Singapore warns China-linked group UNC3886 targets its critical infrastructure

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Fortinet FortiWeb flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 54

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 533 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Radiology Associates of Richmond data breach impacts 1.4 million people

 | 

Fortinet FortiWeb flaw CVE-2025-25257 exploited hours after PoC release

 | 

Authorities released free decryptor for Phobos and 8base ransomware

 | 

Anne Arundel Dermatology data breach impacts 1.9 million people

 | 

LameHug: first AI-Powered malware linked to Russia’s APT28

 | 

5 Features Every AI-Powered SOC Platform Needs in 2025

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Kr00k Wi-Fi Encryption flaw affects more than a billion devices

Kr00k Wi-Fi Encryption flaw affects more than a billion devices

Pierluigi Paganini February 26, 2020

A high-severity hardware vulnerability, dubbed Kr00k, in Wi-Fi chips manufactured by Broadcom and Cypress expose over a billion devices to hack.

Cybersecurity researchers from ESET have discovered a new high-severity hardware vulnerability, dubbed Kr00k, that affects Wi-Fi chips manufactured by Broadcom and Cypress. The vulnerability could have a severe impact on the IT sector, the flawed chips are used in over a billion devices, including routers, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and IoT gadgets.

The Kr00k vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2019-15126, could be exploited by nearby remote attackers to intercept and decrypt some wireless network packets transmitted over-the-air by a vulnerable device.

“ESET researchers discovered a previously unknown vulnerability in Wi-Fi chips and named it Kr00k. This serious flaw, assigned CVE-2019-15126, causes vulnerable devices to use an all-zero encryption key to encrypt part of the user’s communication.” reads the paper published by ESET. “In a successful attack, this vulnerability allows an adversary to decrypt some wireless network packets transmitted by a vulnerable device.”

The issue is related to the KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attacks) that was discovered in October 2017 and that works against almost any WPA2 Wi-Fi network.

ESET researchers discovered the new flaw while they were analyzing the KRACK attack.

The attacker could exploit the Kr00k issue even by attackers that are not connected to the victim’s wireless network, the vulnerability works against vulnerable devices using WPA2-Personal or WPA2-Enterprise protocols, with AES-CCMP encryption.

An attacker could exploit the Kr00k vulnerability after forcing a device from disconnecting from a Wi-Fi network.

“Kr00k manifests itself after a disassociation. Once a station’s WLAN session gets disassociated (1), the session key (TK) stored in the Wireless Network Interface Controller’s (WNIC) Wi-Fi chip is cleared in memory – set to zero.” continues the report. “This is expected behavior, as no further data is supposed to be transmitted after the disassociation.”

Experts pointed out that the vulnerability does not reside in the Wi-Fi encryption protocol, instead, the issue is related to the way some chips implemented the encryption. Researchers pointed out that communications protected by TLS cannot be recovered by exploiting this vulnerability.

The flaw doesn’t affect modern devices using the WPA3 protocol.

When the attackers force the disconnection of the device from the wireless network, the Wi-Fi chip clears the session key in the memory and set it to zero, then the chip transmits all data frames left in the buffer with an all-zero encryption key even after the disassociation.

An attacker in near proximity to vulnerable devices can force repeatedly disassociations by sending packets over the air to capture more data frames.

“we discovered that all data frames that were left in the chip’s Tx (transmit) buffer were transmitted (4) after being encrypted with this all-zero key (3).” continues ESET. “after a disassociation occurs, data from the chip’s Tx buffer will be transmitted encrypted with the all-zero TK. These data frames can be captured by an adversary and subsequently decrypted. This data can contain several kilobytes of potentially sensitive information. This is possible even if the attacker is not connected (authenticated and associated) to the WLAN (e.g. doesn’t know the PSK) – by using a WNIC in monitor mode – which is what would make Kr00k advantageous for the attackers, compared to some other attack techniques used against Wi-Fi security.”

ESET reported this issue to both Broadcom and Cypress last year, as well as to manufacturers of devices that used the flawed chips, including Apple, Xiaomi, Raspberry, and Samsung.

Apple already released security updates for its devices using the above chips.

Additional details are reported in the research paper published by ESET.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Kr00k)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking hacking news information security news it security it security news Kr00k Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Wi-Fi

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 23, 2025
French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 23, 2025
Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

    Cyber Crime / July 23, 2025

    Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

    APT / July 23, 2025

    Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

    Hacking / July 22, 2025

    SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

    Hacking / July 22, 2025

    CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

    Hacking / July 22, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT