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Martin McKeay's picture
Martin McKeay

Security Matters

Severe Intel Centrino vulnerability released

Last year we had Michael Lynn and the Cisco vulnerabilities, this year we have Intel becoming the target.  Attackers have discovered major vulnerabilities in the drivers for the Centrino wireless series of devices.  So if your laptop has an "Intel Inside Centrino" sticker on it, you have a good possibility of being affected by this set of vulnerabilities.  Intel very clearly points out that this is a Windows vulnerability multiple times in their notes.

There are three vulnerabilities; one allows for remote code execution, a second allows privilege escalation, while the third is an information disclosure vulnerability.  The only saving grace is the need for physical proximity.  The folks at F-Secure believe it might be possible for an attacker to create a virus that leaps from wireless laptop to wireless laptop.  This would be especially effective in offices densely packed with vulnerable systems. 

The patch is big (129 Mb), and the Internet Storm Center is suggesting that you talk to your vendor about your system's specifics before applying the patch.  The Intel patch might have issues with some hardware.  I haven't heard of any malware that's been created to take advantage of this yet.    Are you going to patch for this vulnerability immediately, wait for a vendor-specific patch or take other measures to safeguard your network? 

What People Are Saying

I've installed the patch on

I've installed the patch on my Lenovo ThinkPad R50e only because I volunteered to be the guinea pig for our division. It broke the ThinkVantage Access Connections software in the process -- this program was responsible for orchestrating which network connection I use and the profile settings for my laptop (e.g., preferred homepage, VPN client, firewall, and other apps).

The driver itself (130MB? Who are they kidding? That's not a driver -- that's an application suite!) works as advertised. Lenovo currently has v10.1 of the driver from May on their site (vs. 10.5 from Intel) with no indication as to when they'll be providing 10.5. So it's either break other apps or sit exposed and vulnerable in your coffee shop...