Warning to all users of older models of iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, the possibility that your gadgets are now left open on WiFihacking is now on a much higher rate compared before. This is after experts found out that a certain vulnerability in Wi-Fi chips named Kr00k recently allowed hackers to infiltrate billions of devices easily-- yup, it's not just Apple!
Warning! Don't open Wi-Fi if you're still using the old model of Apple gadgets or else...
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, antivirus company ESET released a report stating that billions of devices from Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, Huawei, and other smartphone manufacturers are now in serious vulnerability. This is after they found an unknown security flaw that once got on the hands of hackers, billions of information may be transmitted easily through connecting to your Wi-Fi.
As explained by ESET, the unknown vulnerability in Wi-Fi chips is called Kr00k or the CVE-2019-15126. This serious flaw, according to Ars Technica, can allow nearby attackers to decrypt sensitive data sent over the air with the usage of connecting to Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately, the most common Wi-Fi chip that is now widely used by thousands of device companies called Broadcom and Cypress were the primary devices that got affected by Kr00k.
Ars Technica via Eset researchers determined these devices as the most vulnerable to Kr00k:
- Amazon Echo 2nd gen
- Amazon Kindle 8th gen
- Apple iPad mini 2
- Apple iPhone 6, 6S, 8, XR
- Apple MacBook Air Retina 13-inch 2018
- Google Nexus 5
- Google Nexus 6
- Google Nexus 6S
- Raspberry Pi 3
- Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9505
- Samsung Galaxy S8
- Xiaomi Redmi 3S
The researchers also found that the following wireless routers are vulnerable:
- Asus RT-N12
- Huawei B612S-25d
- Huawei EchoLife HG8245H
- Huawei E5577Cs-321
No need to panic! Apple, Amazon, Broadcom, and Cypress already cleared the issue
As per ESET, they had already warned Wi-Fi chip manufacturer Broadcom and Cypress to protect their customers from further hacking.
"We responsibly disclosed the vulnerability to chip manufacturers Broadcom and Cypress, who subsequently released updates during an extended disclosure period," explained by ESET. "We also worked with the Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet (ICASI) to ensure that all potentially affected parties - including affected device manufacturers using the vulnerable chips, as well as any other possibly affected chip manufacturers - were aware of KrØØk."
Apple also released a statement saying that in October, the reported vulnerability was already resolved when they updated macOS and iOS and iPad.
Meanwhile, Amazon said that "Customer trust is important to us, and we take the security of our devices seriously. The Echo and Kindle devices detailed in this research have received automatic security updates over the Internet addressing this issue."
One thing for sure, if your gadgets have not yet applied the latest available updates to your Wi-Fi-capable devices-- something might happen soon.
