esp-idf: ESP32 STA deauth frame causing reconnect issues (IDFGH-6544)

Environment

• Development Kit: Custom
• Kit version NA
• Module or chip used: ESP32-WROOM-32D

I am not yet up and running with an IDF example, as this was discovered downstream in arduino. I finally had time to look into this long time issue and am trying to identify/resolve the 2-3 issues this is encompassing. https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/issues/2501

Problem Description

The Frame in question

This change was made sometime in late 3.x SDK I think. I am assuming this is maybe from a CVE patch , but I cannot find the exact documentation for this, maybe someone can tip me off, most of the dos/injections are against enterprise WPA2, not WPA2 PSK shrug… I am not wifi expert.

I am hoping PMF/WPA3 solves this… I have not been able to confirm that yet.

The immediate issue is that this causes some APs to (within a timeout period of last assoc, so device resets mostly!) respond to these sta deauths with a deauth reasoncode 2 or some other bizarro responses, i have seen 4way fails etc.

The router response

This is my unifi nanohd ap sending a deauth back

Nov 20 22:24:01 nanohd f492bf7f354a,UAP-nanoHD-5.60.9+12980: stahtd: stahtd[2269]: [STA-TRACKER].stahtd_dump_event(): {"message_type":"STA_ASSOC_TRACKER","assoc_delta":"0","wpa_auth_failures":"1","mac":"7c:df:a1:00:77:ec","vap":"ra0","event_type":"failure","assoc_status":"0","event_id":"12","auth_delta":"0","auth_ts":"2360096.826707"}

Nov 20 22:49:10 nanohd f492bf7f354a,UAP-nanoHD-5.60.9+12980: hostapd: ra0: STA 7c:df:a1:00:77:ec IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Nov 20 22:49:10 nanohd f492bf7f354a,UAP-nanoHD-5.60.9+12980: kernel: ra0: AUTH - receive DE-AUTH(seq-3796) from 7c:df:a1:00:77:ec, reason=3
Nov 20 22:49:10 nanohd f492bf7f354a,UAP-nanoHD-5.60.9+12980: kernel: ra0: (MlmeDeAuthAction)Send DEAUTH frame with ReasonCode(2) to 7c:df:a1:00:77:ec
Nov 20 22:49:10 nanohd f492bf7f354a,UAP-nanoHD-5.60.9+12980: : wevent[2268]: wevent.ubnt_custom_event(): EVENT_STA_LEAVE ra0: 7c:df:a1:00:77:ec / 9
Nov 20 22:49:10 nanohd f492bf7f354a,UAP-nanoHD-5.60.9+12980: hostapd: ra0: STA 7c:df:a1:00:77:ec IEEE 802.11: disassociated

[  1479][V][WiFiGeneric.cpp:96] set_esp_interface_ip(): Configuring Station static IP: 0.0.0.0, MASK: 0.0.0.0, GW: 0.0.0.0
[WIFI] Connecting to wifi... [20000 ms]

.....................E (7394) wifi:Association refused temporarily, comeback time 1048 mSec
.....................[  5611][V][WiFiGeneric.cpp:289] _arduino_event_cb(): STA Disconnected: SSID: ssid, BSSID: f4:92:bf:7f:35:4b, Reason: 203
[  5612][D][WiFiGeneric.cpp:831] _eventCallback(): Arduino Event: 5 - STA_DISCONNECTED
[  5619][W][WiFiGeneric.cpp:852] _eventCallback(): Reason: 203 - ASSOC_FAIL

Now there are 2 things going on here.

1. Why is this behavior happening? De-auth protection mechanism on both sides maybe? Can we turn it off, should it be turned off for some 80211 protos? or something ? Is it a security mechanism and thats it, we are stuck with it?

1.b Even with a workaround and reconnect, we are looking at connection times of 8-16 seconds over 1.6s in previous SDKs. Making bssid, and channel caching an absolute requirement now and YET STILL having double the connect times of 3-5s. Battery power devices be damned… lol

1. Missing Event reason/codes to properly identify these in arduino and defer a reconnect to handle this independently from autoreconnect maybe? As of now this usually fails with no useful reason other than auth fail which is confusing. Again still looking at 8s reconnects.

refs# https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/issues/2501#issuecomment-977947879