Bug 31037

Summary:	mandi? saying wireless source (eduroam at Texas A&M U) is WEP when it is WPA2, and messing up wpa_supplicant.conf
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	w unruh <unruh>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Mageia tools maintainers <mageiatools>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	major
Priority:	Normal	CC:	davidwhodgins, pkg-bugs
Version:	8
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:	mandi-1.4-4.mga8.src.rpm, drakx-net-2.55-1.mga8.src.rpm,	CVE:
Status comment:

Description w unruh 2022-10-27 04:02:26 CEST

Using NetworkCenter on Mageia8. Often when I initially select eduroam at the University the first time I connect after a time at home, Network center will ask me to configure and wil claim that the connection is WEP with a password. 
If I try wpa_cli immediately after that notification, it will (correctly) say that the edurom connection is WPA2. If I try the :configure" on the network center again it will still say it is WEP.If I try to connect it will rewrite wpa_supplicant.conf with the WEP.  which ensures that it is almost impossible to 
connect thereafter.

On the other hand, if I connect to eduroam, then shut down at the Uni and then restart, it automatically reconnects to eduroam fast and without any trouble.

Tests show that network center (/lib/libDrakx/network/monitor.pm) uses mandi to get the information, not wpa_cli (which would be OK if it got things right. But it seems silly to have two programs, a mandi plugin, and wpa_cli scan/scan_results doing exactly the same thing, but written differently and with bugs.



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

How reproducible: at least 1/3 of th time. 


Steps to Reproduce: See above

Comment 1 Dave Hodgins 2022-10-27 04:33:31 CEST

Workaround is to uninstall mandi, which I recommend anyways. It's normally
installed for the interactive firewall (mandi-ifw), which produces notifications
for things shorewall has blocked. I consider it an annoying distraction and
always remove it except when testing updates or new releases.

Assigning to the Mageia tools group.

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins
Assignee: bugsquad => mageiatools

Comment 2 w unruh 2022-10-27 20:54:34 CEST

The problem with not using mandi is that the next item inline, is wpa_cli, has only root permissions. I can get around that by running networkcenter vi sudo, but that really makes me uncomfortable, and it means that all of the networkcenter, including all of the perl programs must not have bugs that someone can use to get illicit permissions, and I am not at all certain how safe they are. And without root permission one cannot run wpa_cli.

The next possibility is iwlist, which had been deprecated for something like 15 years now. It also completely fails if there are toho many BSSIDs visible (like in a hospital or in an airport or often in a university lectue hall), although I think mandi has the same problem at least with the wext driver. (where nl80211 has the problem I do not know. For the past 3 years airports have been rare in my life).

Mandi has the advantage that its plugin can run as root, while delivering the information via dbus.

Comment 3 Dave Hodgins 2022-10-28 04:18:30 CEST

Adding all packagers to the cc list as mandi does not have an assigned
maintainer and it may not be a Mageia tools problem.

CC: (none) => pkg-bugs