Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-52160

Medium

Published: 22 February 2024

Published
22 February 2024
Modified
04 November 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0417 88.9th percentile
Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-52160 is a medium-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Evil Twin (T1557.004); ranked in the top 11.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

The implementation of PEAP in wpa_supplicant through 2.10 allows authentication bypass. For a successful attack, wpa_supplicant must be configured to not verify the network's TLS certificate during Phase 1 authentication, and an eap_peap_decrypt vulnerability can then be abused to skip…

more

Phase 2 authentication. The attack vector is sending an EAP-TLV Success packet instead of starting Phase 2. This allows an adversary to impersonate Enterprise Wi-Fi networks.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1557.004 Evil Twin Credential Access
Adversaries may host seemingly genuine Wi-Fi access points to deceive users into connecting to malicious networks as a way of supporting follow-on behaviors such as [Network Sniffing](https://attack.
T1040 Network Sniffing Credential Access
Adversaries may passively sniff network traffic to capture information about an environment, including authentication material passed over the network.
Why these techniques?

CVE-2023-52160 enables Evil Twin attacks (T1557.004) by allowing authentication bypass in wpa_supplicant, impersonating Enterprise Wi-Fi networks and facilitating network sniffing (T1040) via traffic interception on rogue access points.

Affected Assets

debian
debian linux
10.0
fedoraproject
fedora
38, 39
redhat
enterprise linux
8.0, 9.0
w1.fi
wpa supplicant
≤ 2.10

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-287

Detects unauthorized successful logons resulting from improper authentication implementations.

addresses: CWE-287

Documented procedures ensure personnel are trained on authentication mechanisms, tangibly lowering the risk of improper authentication being exploited.

addresses: CWE-287

Security awareness training instructs users on secure authentication practices and avoiding credential compromise.

addresses: CWE-287

Training on authentication mechanisms and best practices decreases the occurrence of improper authentication.

addresses: CWE-287

Non-repudiation requires strong authentication mechanisms to irrefutably attribute performed actions to specific individuals or processes.

addresses: CWE-287

Session content review can reveal authentication bypasses or failures in session establishment.

addresses: CWE-287

Review of authentication-related audit records can detect improper authentication mechanisms or bypasses.

addresses: CWE-287

Assessments check authentication mechanisms for correct implementation and effectiveness, reducing successful authentication bypass attempts.

References