SONY VAIO Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) Communication Standard WPA2 Vulnerability - 8th Feb 2018

Dear valued Sony VAIO customers,

Multiple vulnerabilities have been found in Wi-Fi Protected Access 2*. WPA 2 is a wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) communication standard. Among other effects, these vulnerabilities may allow attackers to target encrypted information transmitted across Wi-Fi networks.

We urge customers to take the following countermeasures to avoid the effect of this vulnerability on your Sony VAIO computers.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused and thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation.

*CERT: Vulnerability Note VU#228519
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) handshake traffic can be manipulated to induce nonce and session key reuse (https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/228519)

Affected Models
All models of Sony VAIO equipped with wireless LAN compatible with the WPA 2 communication standard.

Workaround  
By updating the Windows OS (* 1) using Windows Update, you can avoid the effect of this vulnerability while the OS is running.
Please carry out one of the following as a workaround when the OS is not running.
1. Disable Wake-on-Wi-Fi (* 2) function.
2. Disable sleep mode.
3. Do not use wireless LAN (Wi-Fi). Use a wired LAN connection.

Windows Update (* 1): Not supported for Windows Vista and earlier models. Please refer to the announcement on “End of support notification for products using the Windows Vista operating system”.
      
Wake-on-Wi-Fi (* 2) Confirmation and Instructions for Setup
Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings > Right-click Wireless network connection and select Properties) > Click the Configuration button > Go to Power supply management tab

When the “Allow this device to wake the computer” option is grayed out, the Wake-on-Wi-Fi (* 2) function is disabled.

If the “Allow this device to wake the computer” option is checked, you can disable the Wake-on-Wi-Fi (* 2) function by unchecking it.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

Thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation.