# CVE-2019-5061: Denial of service in W1.f1

> Attackers can cause denial of service in hostapd by forging authentication packets to trigger premature location updates, affecting wireless infrastructure stability.

- **Severity:** High 7.4 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 12 Dec 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2019-5061, GHSA-6626-64rf-2cvv, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-5061

## What is CVE-2019-5061?

CVE-2019-5061 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in W1.f1, published on 12 Dec 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An exploitable denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the hostapd 2.6, where an attacker could trigger AP to send IAPP location updates for stations, before the required authentication process has completed. This could lead to different denial of service scenarios, either by causing CAM table attacks, or by leading to traffic flapping if faking already existing clients in other nearby Aps of the same wireless infrastructure. An attacker can forge Authentication and Association Request packets to trigger this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication), CWE-440 (Expected Behavior Violation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-5061?

It affects 1 product.


Products: W1.fi Hostapd.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-5061?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2019-5061 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5061 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in W1.f1

- [CVE-2016-10743](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10743/): Weak cryptography in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-5062](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5062/): Denial of service in W1.f1 (high 7.4)
- [CVE-2026-58374](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-58374/): Memory corruption in hostapd (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2022-37660](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-37660/): Other in n/a (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2019-11555](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11555/): Null dereference in n/a (medium 5.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-5061 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-5061 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in W1.f1, published on 12 Dec 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5061 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: W1.f1. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5061/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5061/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-5061
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-5061
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-5061

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5061/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.