Wi-Fi Bug Found in Linux

A bug has been found in a major Linux Wi-Fi driver that can allow an attacker to take control of a laptop — even when it is not on a Wi-Fi network. There have not been many Linux Wi-Fi device drivers, and this is apparently the first remotely executable Wi-Fi bug. It affects the widely used MadWi-Fi Linux kernel device driver for Atheros-based Wi-Fi chipsets, according to Laurent Butti, a researcher from France Telecom Orange, who found the flaw and released the information in a presentation at last month’s Black Hat conference in Amsterdam.

This is quite a serious flaw, so those who use MadWi-Fi should patch right away. Given the high-risk profile, distro specific repositories will not likely waste time updating to include the patched driver.

Source: PC World