CVE-2026-93805

wifi: cfg80211: validate rx/tx MLME callback frame lengths before access

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Sep 24, 2026
Updated
Oct 3, 2026
Reserved
Sep 18, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

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.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 6829c878ecd24ff0ae41b4668c7e9d0f11b66942 to before 6eb4bd50be53f5afbabb3a3b5153276e08fa7a4aAffected
  • 6829c878ecd24ff0ae41b4668c7e9d0f11b66942 to before ce2a3be6909462f49c34de96be71f0ad5f0d573fAffected
  • 6829c878ecd24ff0ae41b4668c7e9d0f11b66942 to before 6bdf4dcff98df634e04ebf99f52027a48d7f78ffAffected
  • 6829c878ecd24ff0ae41b4668c7e9d0f11b66942 to before 0ec738a0d361d7eb37188117166d201f9df622d3Affected
  • 6829c878ecd24ff0ae41b4668c7e9d0f11b66942 to before 8f4127a93cf60d561ad39849a9ac763ba0e14db5Affected
  • 6829c878ecd24ff0ae41b4668c7e9d0f11b66942 to before d5e4586546974179feca305a94e07fac3e9727feAffected
LinuxLinux
  • 2.6.32Affected
  • before 2.6.32Not affected
  • 5.15.222 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.189 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.6.158 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.111 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.53 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.2 and laterNot affected

References

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