Bug 1578486 - WPA supplicant upgrade disables internet connectivity
Summary: WPA supplicant upgrade disables internet connectivity
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED INSUFFICIENT_DATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: wpa_supplicant
Version: 28
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Davide Caratti
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
: 1599036 (view as bug list)
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2018-05-15 17:02 UTC by Justin Hale
Modified: 2020-01-13 19:32 UTC (History)
10 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2018-05-17 12:09:34 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Justin Hale 2018-05-15 17:02:59 UTC
Description of problem:
Installing the latest version of WPA supplicant left the computer unable to connect to the internet. 

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
wpa_supplicant-2.6-15.fc28.x86_64

How reproducible:
5/5 attempts yielded the same result.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install version 2.6-15.fc28.x86_64
2.Reboot
3.Login

Actual results:
After some minutes the connection is refused.
The surrounding windows computer reliably looses the connection while attempting to connect.

Expected results:
Normal automatic connection to WPA2 secured router. 

Additional info:
I came to this conclusion by repeated attempts to connect to the internet, then failing that by downloading an older version (14) on a Windows computer, installing, and rebooting. Everything worked fine after downgrading wpa_supplicant.

Booting up with different kernel version from the boot up menu didn't change anything.

Comment 1 Davide Caratti 2018-05-15 17:35:39 UTC
(In reply to Justin Hale from comment #0)
> Description of problem:
> Installing the latest version of WPA supplicant left the computer unable to
> connect to the internet. 
> 
> Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
> wpa_supplicant-2.6-15.fc28.x86_64
> 
> How reproducible:
> 5/5 attempts yielded the same result.
> 
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1.Install version 2.6-15.fc28.x86_64
> 2.Reboot
> 3.Login
> 
> Actual results:
> After some minutes the connection is refused.
> The surrounding windows computer reliably looses the connection while
> attempting to connect.

so apparently the AP is applying countermeasures (or, even worse, crashing) as an effect of seeing the new wpa_supplicant capable of doing MFP.

> Expected results:
> Normal automatic connection to WPA2 secured router. 
> 
> Additional info:
> I came to this conclusion by repeated attempts to connect to the internet,
> then failing that by downloading an older version (14) on a Windows
> computer, installing, and rebooting. Everything worked fine after
> downgrading wpa_supplicant.
> Booting up with different kernel version from the boot up menu didn't change
> anything.

thank you for the test. Can you please read the following configuration value?

$ nmcli connection show <your wifi connection>  | grep pmf

and also retry wpa_supplicant-2.6.15 after setting it to 1 ?

$ nmcli connection edit <your wifi connection>
nmcli> set 802-11-wireless-security.pmf 1 
nmcli> save
nmcli> activate

thank you in advance!

Comment 2 Justin Hale 2018-05-15 20:13:46 UTC
Under version 2.6.14:

nmcli connection show TC8715D3C  | grep pmf
802-11-wireless-security.pmf:           0 (default)

I'll try 2.6.15 in a few minutes.

Comment 3 Justin Hale 2018-05-16 10:03:18 UTC
I did as suggested. Now I have restarted the router, and reinstalled version 14. 

Editing existing '802-11-wireless' connection: 'TC8715D3C'

Type 'help' or '?' for available commands.
Type 'describe [<setting>.<prop>]' for detailed property description.

You may edit the following settings: connection, 802-11-wireless (wifi), 802-11-wireless-security (wifi-s
ec), 802-1x, ipv4, ipv6, tc, proxy
nmcli> set 802-11-wireless-security.pmf 
Allowed values for 'pmf' property: default, disable, optional, required
Enter 'pmf' value: 1
nmcli> save
Connection 'TC8715D3C' (8da91bfc-da9d-4053-bf9f-18f8b85529b4) successfully updated.
nmcli> activate
Monitoring connection activation (press any key to continue)
\ co
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/9)

The wireless connection was connected according to nmcli, but the GUI gave me a question mark where the dot and rays icon should be, and the process was so disruptive that I had to restart the router. 

I'll try again, but this time I'll disable the wireless connection before I restart.

Comment 4 Justin Hale 2018-05-16 10:13:37 UTC
That fixed it!

As long as I follow the instructions and pay careful attention to leave the network connection off until the last step to activate using nmcli, which is right after the step to save, then the internet is restored.

Comment 5 Davide Caratti 2018-05-16 10:17:30 UTC
(In reply to Justin Hale from comment #4)
> That fixed it!
> 
> As long as I follow the instructions and pay careful attention to leave the
> network connection off until the last step to activate using nmcli, which is
> right after the step to save, then the internet is restored.

(sorry) I forgot to mention this earlier, we need to restart wpa_supplicant.service after we upgrade the rpm, before doing the test:

# systemctl restart wpa_suppllicant.service

otherwise the test result is unreliable.

Can you confirm that upgrading to wpa_supplicant-2.6.15 and setting PMF to 1 works around the 'missing connectiivity' problem in your setup?

thanks!
-- 
davide

Comment 6 Justin Hale 2018-05-16 11:27:32 UTC
> (sorry) I forgot to mention this earlier, we need to restart 
> wpa_supplicant.service after we upgrade the rpm, before doing the test:

[root@localhost jhale]# systemctl restart wpa_suppllicant.service
Failed to restart wpa_suppllicant.service: Unit wpa_suppllicant.service not found.

After upgrading to wpa_supplicant-2.6.15, I disabled WiFi, restarted, then set PMF to 1 - all of this using nmcli. I saved then I turned on WiFi (using the GUI). Finally, I activated using nmcli. That is working now, where previously nothing worked for 2.6.15. 

How can I make the test more reliable given that the service is not available by that name on my box?

Comment 7 Justin Hale 2018-05-16 11:28:27 UTC
Correction, I disabled WiFi using the GUI.

Comment 8 Davide Caratti 2018-05-16 13:56:34 UTC
(In reply to Justin Hale from comment #6)
> > (sorry) I forgot to mention this earlier, we need to restart 
> > wpa_supplicant.service after we upgrade the rpm, before doing the test:
> 
> [root@localhost jhale]# systemctl restart wpa_suppllicant.service
> Failed to restart wpa_suppllicant.service: Unit wpa_suppllicant.service not
> found.
> 

ouch. I put an extra 'l'. You have this service for sure on Fedora, so try

# systemctl restart wpa_supplicant.service

> After upgrading to wpa_supplicant-2.6.15, I disabled WiFi, restarted, then
> set PMF to 1 - all of this using nmcli. I saved then I turned on WiFi (using
> the GUI). Finally, I activated using nmcli. That is working now, where
> previously nothing worked for 2.6.15. 
> 
> How can I make the test more reliable given that the service is not
> available by that name on my box?

I would say, if the 2.6-15 rpm is installed on your system, simply restart it two or three times and ensure that the connectivity is up:

# systemctl restart wpa_supplicant.service

Then, if we are sure that the workaround is functional in your setup, it might be a good info to know what is the access point model (and ideally the firmware version running on the AP). I'm not sure I will be able to reproduce the problem , specially if the bug is in the AP (that's why I suspect at the moment).

thank you very much for collaborating!
regards,
-- 
davide

Comment 9 Justin Hale 2018-05-16 19:19:38 UTC
Restarting wpa_supplicant.service three times had no effect on connectivity. 

I'll work on getting the WiFi router model and firmware version later, hopefully today. 

Thank you for your help.

Comment 10 Justin Hale 2018-05-17 10:25:57 UTC
technicolor 

model: TC8715D
Rating: 120 V AC, 60Hz, 1.2 A
FCC ID: RSE-TC8717T

There are 2 SSIDs from this one device. I consistently use the 2.4 GHz SSID.

The encryption is WPA2-PSK(AES)

There is a WPS PIN, which I have never used.

The H/W Version is 1.1, which I take to be the firmware.

DOCSIS Software Version: 01.EF.04.38.00

Software Image Name: TC8715D-01.EF.04.38.00-180405-S-FF9-D.img

Advanced Services: 2.6.30-1.0.11mp1-g24a0ad5-dirty

https://www.timewarnercable.com/content/dam/residential/pdfs/support/internet/ModemUserGuides/technicolor-tc8715d-userguide.pdf

Comment 11 Davide Caratti 2018-05-17 12:09:34 UTC
(In reply to Justin Hale from comment #10)
> technicolor 
> 
> model: TC8715D
> Rating: 120 V AC, 60Hz, 1.2 A
> FCC ID: RSE-TC8717T
> 
> There are 2 SSIDs from this one device. I consistently use the 2.4 GHz SSID.
> 
> The encryption is WPA2-PSK(AES)

Looking at the manual, this model does not seem to support configuration of PMF at all; moreover, the GUI does not expose any system log; finally, we have no way to inspect the AP implementation, as sources for the software running on the TC8715D seem to be not available at all. Because of that, I am for closing this  bugzilla as INSUFFICIENT_DATA.

Disabling PMF functionality for the connection named 'TC8715D' looks a viable workaround. You might try re-enabling it in the future, after a firmware upgrade on the router, in case you want to protect against wifi DEAUTH attacks.

thank you for reporting!
regards,
-- 
davide

Comment 12 Davide Caratti 2018-08-13 17:36:59 UTC
*** Bug 1599036 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13 Micah Abbott 2018-08-20 16:37:29 UTC
I ran into this today while at my parent's house, where they have the Technicolor TC8715D wireless router.

On my Fedora 28 host, I disabled the PMF functionality as suggested:

$ nmcli connection edit <your wifi connection>
nmcli> set 802-11-wireless-security.pmf 1 
nmcli> save
nmcli> activate

...and was able to successfully connect to the AP again.


Thanks for the successful workaround!


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