MAC crash during switch to master mode with null ESSID

[Jouni Malinen]

On Tue, Mar 25, 2003 at 03:32:48PM -0800, Mark Glines wrote:

> I've noticed that when you switch the mode to managed, change the essid
> to any and switch back to master mode before the MAC has associated with
> anything, the MAC seems to subsequently crash.

Using empty SSID (i.e., broadcast SSID) in AP mode does not have
well-defined use in IEEE 802.11. I do not think it should be allowed at
all.

> The MAC needs a hard reset afterwards to be of any use.  Is this a known
> problem?  Is it fixed in later firmware?

This is a known problem, but not only in the firmware code. Of course it
could argued that the firmware should not crash with such
misconfiguration (and this is not fixed at least in 1.7.2), but I would
say it is mostly up to the driver to make sure such configuration is not
tried. I just modified Host AP driver to deny changing to Master mode if
the SSID is set to empty in another mode.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA