CVE-2011-5053

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.8 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2012-01-06 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-287

Description

The Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) protocol, when the "external registrar" authentication method is used, does not properly inform clients about failed PIN authentication, which makes it easier for remote attackers to discover the PIN value, and consequently discover the Wi-Fi network password or reconfigure an access point, by reading EAP-NACK messages.

Affected products

Wi-Fi Wifi Protected Setup Protocol: all versions

References

http://code.google.com/p/reaver-wps/
http://sviehb.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/viehboeck_wps.pdf
http://sviehb.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/wi-fi-protected-setup-pin-brute-force-vulnerability/
http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityResponse/cisco-sr-20120111-wps
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/723755
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA12-006A.html
http://code.google.com/p/reaver-wps/
http://sviehb.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/viehboeck_wps.pdf
http://sviehb.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/wi-fi-protected-setup-pin-brute-force-vulnerability/
http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityResponse/cisco-sr-20120111-wps
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/723755
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA12-006A.html

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