Recently, researchers have discovered something shocking! Researchers have managed to find critical vulnerabilities in the 13-year-old protocol that permit hackers within the range of the network to extract the Wifi password and intercept internet traffic. The reason why this vulnerability can make a big impact in today’s digital world is that WPA2 encryption is used by almost everyone now. So, this vulnerability makes everyone prone to hacking. Hackers can also use this vulnerability to access any kind of unencrypted traffic between the device and access point. Further possibilities also include content injection. Actually, the flaw lies in the WPA 4-way handshake which is used to create an encryption key to secure the internet traffic. Researchers claim that the vulnerability can be seen in action in the form of a proof-of-concept known as Key Reinstallation Attacks (KRACK). A new website which goes by the name krackattacks.com had described the flaw in details. It had mentioned that the following CVEs carrying more details will be published soon:
CVE-2017-13077 CVE-2017-13078 CVE-2017-13079 CVE-2017-13080 CVE-2017-13081 CVE-2017-13082 CVE-2017-13084 CVE-2017-13086 CVE-2017-13087 CVE-2017-13088
The affected WiFi routers and access points are not going to receive patches immediately. So, we need to take care of few things as a protective measure:
Always use HTTPS over HTTP Don’t send confidential details over unencrypted networks Using a VPN service could add an extra layer of security Restrict yourself from visiting unknown sites, and don’t use public WiFi unless it’s necessary.
So, what do you think about this? Share your views in the comment box below.
