Vulnerability Discussion

Without protection of communications with wireless peripherals, confidentiality and integrity may be compromised because unprotected communications can be intercepted and either read, altered, or used to compromise the operating system.

This requirement applies to wireless peripheral technologies (e.g., wireless mice, keyboards, displays, etc.) used with an operating system. Wireless peripherals (e.g., Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/IR Keyboards, Mice, and Pointing Devices and Near Field Communications [NFC]) present a unique challenge by creating an open, unsecured port on a computer. Wireless peripherals must meet DoD requirements for wireless data transmission and be approved for use by the AO. Even though some wireless peripherals, such as mice and pointing devices, do not ordinarily carry information that need to be protected, modification of communications with these wireless peripherals may be used to compromise the operating system. Communication paths outside the physical protection of a controlled boundary are exposed to the possibility of interception and modification.

Protecting the confidentiality and integrity of communications with wireless peripherals can be accomplished by physical means (e.g., employing physical barriers to wireless radio frequencies) or by logical means (e.g., employing cryptographic techniques). If physical means of protection are employed, then logical means (cryptography) do not have to be employed, and vice versa. If the wireless peripheral is only passing telemetry data, encryption of the data may not be required.

Check

Verify that there are no wireless interfaces configured on the system.

Check that the system does not have active wireless interfaces with the following command:

Note: This requirement is Not Applicable for systems that do not have physical wireless network radios.

# ifconfig -a | more

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet addr:192.168.2.100 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
...

eth1 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"tacnet"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:40:E7:22:45:CD
...

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
...

If a wireless interface is configured and has not been documented and approved by the Information System Security Officer (ISSO), this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the system to disable all wireless network interfaces with the following command:

# sudo ifdown [ADAPTER_NAME]