# CVE-2019-9494: The implementations of SAE in hostapd and wpa_supplicant are vulnerable to side-channel attacks

> Side-channel attacks in SAE implementations allow attackers to recover Wi-Fi passwords via timing and cache analysis, requiring SAE support to be enabled.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Apr 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2019-9494, DEBIAN-CVE-2019-9494, GHSA-cvqc-p7v4-m9pm

## What is CVE-2019-9494?

CVE-2019-9494 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 17 Apr 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The implementations of SAE in hostapd and wpa_supplicant are vulnerable to side channel attacks as a result of observable timing differences and cache access patterns. An attacker may be able to gain leaked information from a side channel attack that can be used for full password recovery. Both hostapd with SAE support and wpa_supplicant with SAE support prior to and including version 2.7 are affected.

Weakness: CWE-203 (Observable Discrepancy), CWE-524 (Use of Cache Containing Sensitive Information), CWE-208 (Observable Timing Discrepancy)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-9494?

It affects 8 products.


Products: Fedoraproject Fedora, Freebsd Freebsd, Opensuse Backports Sle, Opensuse Leap, Synology Radius Server, Synology Router Manager, W1.fi Hostapd, W1.fi Wpa Supplicant.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-9494?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-9494 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-9494 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora

- [CVE-2024-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4577/): PHP-CGI OS Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-39226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39226/): Grafana Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-5544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5544/): VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4947/): Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4671](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4671/): Google Chromium Visuals Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-9494 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-9494 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 17 Apr 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-9494 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2019-9494/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9494/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-9494
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9494
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-9494

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9494/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.