CVE-2026-98186
Received Received - Intake

Buffer Overflow in Linux Kernel mwifiex WiFi Driver

Publication date: 2026-10-06

Last updated on: 2026-10-06

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mwifiex: bound the pairwise-cipher OUI walk to the IE length mwifiex_search_oui_in_ie() reads a pairwise-cipher (PTK) count from a beacon/probe-response RSN or WPA information element and then walks that many 4-byte OUIs, comparing each with memcmp(). The count comes straight from the (attacker-supplied) IE and is never checked against the element's own length, and the callers admit the element on element_id alone (has_ieee_hdr() / has_vendor_hdr(), no length check). A crafted RSN/WPA IE with a large pairwise count therefore makes the walk read up to 255 * 4 bytes past the element -- an out-of-bounds read of the kmemdup()'d beacon buffer, reachable from any AP whose beacon/probe response is processed during scan-result parsing. Pass the number of IE bytes available at the OUI list and bound the walk to the element. Keep the length signed and reject a negative value before any unsigned arithmetic, so a small or zero IE length cannot underflow to a large size_t and defeat the bound. Found by 0sec automated security-research tooling (https://0sec.ai).

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Meta Information

Published
2026-10-06
Last Modified
2026-10-06
Generated
2026-10-06
AI Q&A
2026-10-06
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-98186
EUVD
EUVD-2026-93114

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 9 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 5e6e3a92b9a4c9416b17f468fa5c7fa2233b8b4e
Linux Linux 3.0

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Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This is a buffer over-read vulnerability in the Linux kernel's mwifiex Wi-Fi driver. It occurs when processing beacon or probe-response frames from access points. The driver reads a pairwise-cipher count from a crafted information element (IE) without validating it against the actual IE length. This allows an attacker to force the driver to read up to 255*4 bytes beyond the allocated buffer, potentially exposing sensitive kernel memory.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is specific to the Linux kernel's mwifiex WiFi driver and requires examining kernel memory for out-of-bounds reads during WiFi scanning. Detection typically involves kernel logging or specialized security tools monitoring for memory corruption events related to the mwifiex driver.

Impact Analysis

An attacker within Wi-Fi range could exploit this to read sensitive kernel memory from devices using vulnerable Linux kernels. This might expose passwords, encryption keys, or other confidential data. The attack requires no authentication and works when the device scans for nearby networks.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply the latest Linux kernel security updates that include the fix for this vulnerability. If immediate patching is not possible, disable the mwifiex driver or avoid using affected WiFi hardware until patched.

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