Critical Exploit in MediaTek Wi-Fi Chipsets: Zero-Click Vulnerability (CVE-2024-20017) Threatens Routers and Smartphones

The SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team became aware of the threat CVE-2024-20017, assessed its impact and developed mitigation measures for the vulnerability. CVE-2024-20017 is a critical zero-click vulnerability with a CVSS 3.0 score of 9.8, impacting MediaTek Wi-Fi chipsets MT7622/MT7915 and RTxxxx SoftAP driver bundles used in products from various manufacturers, including Ubiquiti, Xiaomi and Netgear. The affected versions include MediaTek SDK versions 7.4.0.1 and earlier, as well as OpenWrt 19.07 and 21.02. This translates to a large variety of vulnerable devices, including routers and smartphones. The flaw allows remote code execution without user interaction due to an out-of-bounds write issue. MediaTek has released patches to mitigate the vulnerability and users should update their devices immediately. While this vulnerability was published and patched back in March, only recently did a public PoC become available making exploitation more likely.