[PATCH] hostapd:Avoid disassociation getting in to a loop by moving

[dheeraj.km at globaledgesoft.com]

From: dheerajkm <dheeraj.km at globaledgesoft.com>

Hi,

We were hitting a corner case, where STA's connectivity state machine
was getting into a loop of sending disassociation, for previously
disassociating STA when no ACK is received for Association Response for
Association being tried within ap_handle_timer timeout(AP_DEAUTH_DELAY)

Scenario explained:
1) Associated STA has sent Disassociation frame.
   During reception of Disassociation from STA, in handle_disassoc(),
   sta->timeout_next sets to STA_DEAUTH(0x2) and registers a
   ap_handle_timer for AP_DEAUTH_DELAY(1 sec).
2) STA made Association attempt immediately within ap_handle_timer
   expires/timeout and in handle_assoc() the sta->timeout_next set
   to STA_NULLFUNC.
3) AP has replied with Assoc Response but there was
   no acknowledgement received by AP.
4) During the expiry of ap_handle_timer, as sta->timeout_next
   is STA_NULLFUNC(0x0), sends disassoc to STA and updates
   sta->timeout_next to to STA_DISASSOC(0x1) and ap_handle_timer
   gets registers for AP_DISASSOC_DELAY(1 sec).
5) Once ap_handle_timer timeouts(AP_DISASSOC_DELAY),
   sends disassoc to STA and updates sta->timeout_next to STA_DEAUTH(0x2)
   and ap_handle_timer gets registers for AP_DEAUTH_DELAY(1 sec).
6) Once ap_handle_timer timeouts(AP_DEAUTH_DELAY),
   sends deauth to STA and STA context cleaned up by calling ap_free_sta().

Here, the Disassociation being tried for twice and Deauth tried once.

To Fix this issue, sta->timeout_next = STA_NULLFUNC
is moved from handle_assoc() to hostapd_new_assoc_sta().

Due to this change, sta->timeout_next is set to STA_NULLFUNC
only when Ack is received for the Association Response sent out.
So if ACK is not received within AP_DEAUTH_DELAY, STA is deauthenticated
and STA context is cleaned up. Due to which there needs to be a
new session started by STA with AUTH Req.

Thanks,
Dheeraj K M

 src/ap/hostapd.c    | 4 ++++
 src/ap/ieee802_11.c | 4 ----
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

-- 
1.9.1

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