Most in the industry know it since a while ago. I thought I'd recap a few things about it for those who might have missed it.
What KRACK does?
It uses key reinstallation attacks to view your Wi-Fi traffic that supposed to be protected by WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2)
Who is affected?
At the moment pretty much everybody who uses Wi-Fi, unless specifically updated to address KRACK, including Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek and Linksys etc
Range
The attacker at first must be in the range of your wireless device.
How Does It Work?
A hacker would search for Wi-Fi in the area. Then clone it clone it to trick connected devices.
Then manipulate packets between the Wi-Fi router and the device.
WPA2 uses a four-way handshake encryption when a user joins a Wi-Fi network.
The Wi-Fi router and device generate one-time use encryption keys when they connect.
An encryption key is installed on the device and is then used to encrypt all traffic.
KRACK manipulates the handshake messages, tricking devices into re-installing encryption keys that are already in use.
Keys are meant to be unique and not reusable.
The device is then tricked into connecting with the attacker's network who becomes a middleman between the device and its original network.
Then the attacker can use any software that monitors traffic (for example Wireshark etc) to record unencrypted data.
What to Do?
- Update all your wireless devices as soon as patches become available for your devices
- Until then limit using your Wi-Fi, especially in public places.
- Phone networks seem to be ok, like using your LTE, 3G, 4G etc.
- Use HTTPS at every opportunity when possible, avoid unencrypted connections
- Use a VPN.