Researchers Discover Command Injection Flaw in Wi-Fi Alliance’s Test Suite

Oct 25, 2024Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Wi-Fi Security

A security flaw impacting the Wi-Fi Test Suite could enable unauthenticated local attackers to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) said the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-41992, said the susceptible code from the Wi-Fi Alliance has been found deployed on Arcadyan FMIMG51AX000J routers.

“This flaw allows an unauthenticated local attacker to exploit the Wi-Fi Test Suite by sending specially crafted packets, enabling the execution of arbitrary commands with root privileges on the affected routers,” the CERT/CC said in an advisory released Wednesday.

Wi-Fi Test Suite is an integrated platform developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance that automates testing Wi-Fi components or devices. While open-source components of the toolkit are publicly available, the full package is available only to its members.

SSD Secure Disclosure, which released details of the flaw back in August 2024, described it as a case of command injection that could enable a threat actor to execute commands with root privileges. It was originally reported to the Wi-Fi Alliance in April 2024.

An independent researcher, who goes by the online alias “fj016” has been credited with uncovering and reporting the security shortcomings. The researcher has also made available a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for the flaw.

CERT/CC noted that the Wi-Fi Test Suite is not intended for use in production environments, and yet has been discovered in commercial router deployments.

“An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can gain full administrative control over the affected device,” it said.

“With this access, the attacker can modify system settings, disrupt critical network services, or reset the device entirely. These actions can result in service interruptions, compromise of network data, and potential loss of service for all users dependent on the affected network.”

In the absence of a patch, vendors who have included the Wi-Fi Test Suite are recommended to either remove it completely from production devices or update it to version 9.0 or later to mitigate the risk of exploitation.

The Hacker News has reached out to the Wi-Fi Alliance for further comment, and we will update the story when we hear back.