XBox One X wifi vulnerability

DuncanRhodes2 · Feb 1, 2019

I just heard on Security Now (#698 - 01-22-19 [Mod Removed-Link]
) that the wifi chipset used in the XBox One X, the Marvell Avastar 88W8897, has been proven completely hackable, though no known exploits exist yet.
How do I turn off wifi & just use my Ethernet connection instead? This chip & its ThreadX operating system is completely open to a drive-by attack. "Because affected Wi-Fi devices are set to scan for new networks every five minutes, regardless of
whether or not they are already connected to a Wi-Fi network, this bug, writes [bug discoverer] Embedi: “provides an opportunity to exploit devices with zero-click interaction at any state of wireless connection.” Once malicious code is introduced onto the
Wifi controller, other techniques can be exploited to send data to the device's application processor... resulting in a complete takeover and compromise of the affected device. An attacker would not need to know a target's Wi-Fi SSID name or password. The
target device only needs to be turned on with the attacker broadcasting malicious packets within radio signal range of the target device." "The chip is a closed system. There may not be any way for its firmware to be updated. Or no

programmatic way without hooking up a JTAG programmer. And since the attack is INSIDE the WiFi subsystem, it is independent of the operating system and cannot be blocked by the OS."
I need to completely kill the wifi!

:)

ArminatorX

Please
read the original Blog post about that vulnerability.

While it is possible to inject code through that WiFi vulnerability, the main operating system needs some specific vulnerabilites as well, and in that Blog post, only Linux based systems are tested (i.e. the Steam Link device).

While the Blog post mentions other devices that have this Marvell Chip built in, the author doesn't mention any tests or successful attacks on these devices.

At least an "open" Windows 10 device like a Surface would have sufficed to show if the exploit would work on a Windows 10 device as well.

Added to that, the Xbox One is a completely different "beast" even. While the main kernel of the Xbox One is also a Windows 10-like Kernel, everything on the Xbox One is running in Virtual Machine Hypervisors, and requires digitally signed code to be able
to run on the system.

So I'd assume it's pretty unlikely to be able to inject running code into your Xbox One through that WiFi vulnerability.

Of course, for websites that rely on advertising revenue that they get from user clicks, it's much more interesting to have a headline like "Xbox One and PS4 vulnerable for Marvell Firmware Exploit", than having a headline like "Steam Link Linux vulnerable
to Marvell Firmware flaw. This is also built into Xbox One and PS4, but no one has proven these devices to be exploitable".

So please calm down, and enjoy your gaming device a bit more. You see: For this exploit to be exploitable, an attacker would also have to be in the vicinity of your console, to reach your console's WiFi chip.

Also you would have to have something "valuable" to make the effort to getting such an exploit running on the Xbox One.

It's much easier and effective to be able to launch such an exploit against a normal PC to at least get access to "interesting" data like your emails, and other exploitable information.

The only thing that hackers will probably try to exploit is: How do I possibly get my code to run on the Xbox One so I can play pirated games or mods on this thing. And since that is the main source of revenue for Microsoft and other game publishers, they
will do everything to make sure that no unauthorized code can run on your Xbox One.

So you can still "safely" keep your WiFi in the Xbox One running.

Whitey Black

Just Connect the LAN wire and thanks for let us now the vulnerabilities

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/networking/network-settings

JohnnyXeo

I'm sure they will patch it soon enough if it's that case.

MarsNeedsTacos

There's a lot of wild speculation in there, start with your first statement, no known exploits exist. And the assertion it's a closed system and can't be updated simply isn't true. Relax, this will get patched.

Airiak

Yeah, I'm sure MS will get this patched.

XBox One X wifi vulnerability