In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: cfg80211: validate rx...
🔗 CVE IDs covered (1)
📋 Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: cfg80211: validate rx/tx MLME callback frame lengths before access
cfg80211_rx_mlme_mgmt() and cfg80211_tx_mlme_mgmt() call tracepoints before rejecting frames shorter than the frame-control field. After that, they only require len >= 2 before dispatching into subtype handlers that assume their fixed fields are present.
The frames that trip this are not shorter than 2 bytes; they are short relative to their subtype. mwifiex is a concrete in-tree example on the length side: mwifiex_process_mgmt_packet() only requires a 4-address ieee80211_hdr plus the 2-byte firmware length prefix before handing the frame to cfg80211_rx_mlme_mgmt(). After stripping the length prefix and removing addr4, pkt_len can be exactly 24: a bare 3-address management header with no reason-code body. The existing WARN_ON(len < 2) does not fire on such a frame, and cfg80211_process_deauth() then reads u.deauth.reason_code as a two-byte access starting at offset 24, immediately past the 24-byte buffer.
Add a frame-control length gate, then validate each subtype's minimum frame size in an if/else-if chain that mirrors the dispatch logic. Trace only after the frame is known to be well-formed.
Side effects of this change:
- The WARN_ON(len < 2) is dropped. It only guarded the frame_control read, never the subtype fixed fields, and it does not fire on the frames that actually trigger the out-of-bounds read (which are >= 2). The len >= 2 check is kept as the guard before dereferencing frame_control, but without the warning: these are exported callbacks and a malformed frame from a driver should be dropped silently rather than backtraced.
- cfg80211_tx_mlme_mgmt() previously routed every non-deauth subtype through disassociation handling; it now silently ignores unrecognised subtypes.
🔗 References (8)
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-93805
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0ec738a0d361d7eb37188117166d201f9df622d3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8f4127a93cf60d561ad39849a9ac763ba0e14db5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d5e4586546974179feca305a94e07fac3e9727fe
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6bdf4dcff98df634e04ebf99f52027a48d7f78ff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6eb4bd50be53f5afbabb3a3b5153276e08fa7a4a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce2a3be6909462f49c34de96be71f0ad5f0d573f
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-7vqv-hxrc-vvx2